


Once and Future

by N1ghtshade



Category: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Attempt at Humor, Crossover, Gen, I'm probably going to butcher the storyline, Mako Mori is a badass, Mako and the Mage bond over girl power, Please Don't Kill Me, Raleigh has no idea what he's doing, Swordmaker Mako, This is me trying to write something that isn't painful angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-02-25 21:50:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 27,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13221936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1ghtshade/pseuds/N1ghtshade
Summary: “You’re the swordmaker. You’re supposed to know what to do with swords.”“Raleigh, that is a glowing magic sword you just pulled out of a rock. I'm as lost as you are."The Breach is a portal between more than two worlds. Raleigh and Mako make it out alive, but not in the same world they left. And it seems they escaped one war only to find themselves in the middle of another.In other words, this is the Pacific Rim/Legend of the Sword crossover no one but me asked for but that's been bugging me since I saw the movie this summer.





	1. This wasn't covered in the PPDC handbook-Mako POV

**Author's Note:**

> Someone else wrote an idea that the Breach was a rift in time. It’s certainly a rift in worlds. And this idea has been kicking around my mind for a while, and I kept hoping someone else was going to write this because I suck at long works. So hopefully this doesn't completely suck, and maybe there's someone else out there who's been looking for this to show up too. Hope you enjoy this mess I call writing.

“What do I do?”

“I don’t know!” This is all Raleigh’s fault, Mako thinks grimly.

“You’re the swordmaker. You’re supposed to know what to do with swords.”

“Raleigh, that is a glowing magic sword you just _pulled out of a rock._ My father didn’t make that kind.” She didn’t think they could even exist. But then again, she didn’t think this place could exist.

To be fair, it’s not _entirely_ Raleigh’s fault they’re here, running from a very large and very angry contingent of someone’s soldiers. It’s the Breach’s fault, really, if she wants someone to blame. 

Mako thought the strangest thing she would see today would be the Breach, and the strange world on the other side of it, and the terrible, freakish Kaiju it spat out to fight them. But the universe decided it wasn’t done with Raleigh and her just yet. And so far, this hasn’t gone well. That might be a bit of an understatement, Mako’s thoughts remind her, as they’re currently running through the rain, in what may or may not be eighth century England, with a disturbingly large and glowing sword. And someone’s army behind them.

“Well, I just thought you might know if we could, you know, fight off a much larger army with it. Cause we might have to. They don’t seem to be taking the hint that we’re really not interested in meeting them right now.”

Mako doesn’t think the actual gravity of the situation has hit Raleigh yet. He’s still making stupid jokes, even as they’re running themselves out of breath on the rough terrain. She thinks he believes that in an alternate dimension, we can’t be affected by events. She doesn’t want to test his theory.

“I don’t know what it does and I don’t know if I want to. You can’t just attack them and hope that thing somehow manages to turn you into an unbeatable swordsman. You were struggling just to use Gipsy’s chainsword.”

“Then you take it!”

“No! I don’t know what it will do if I touch it. You pulled it out. You keep it.” The pursuers are getting closer, and even though the rain is falling hard enough that she can’t see them, she can hear the clank of armor and weapons she doesn’t want to be anywhere near. She’s fought enough for one day. There are tall rocky outcroppings ahead of them, looking a bit like someone built a tower the size of a jaeger, pushed it over, and shoved all the stones together in a messy heap. “Raleigh. Up here.” The two scramble up the side of the pile, Raleigh almost falling because he’s only got one free hand. The hollow is deeper than Mako thought, and darker, but at least they can get out of sight. She hopes this alternate dimension or whatever it is doesn’t have some horrific cave-dwelling creature hiding inside.

“You should not be here.” Mako flinches, and she thinks Raleigh might have screamed. It was either him or the raven perched on the shoulder of the unexpected current resident of their hideout.

“Who are you?” Mako isn’t sure if they’re sharing space with a friend or foe. This person could decide to turn them over to the soldiers following them.

“A mage. And you two, what are you?”

“Human.” Raleigh seems to have recovered a bit from the surprise. “And we’re gonna need to know more that ‘a mage’. And if you so much as make one sound to get those people’s attention down there, I’ll take your head off.” He’s holding the sword but he’s doing it all wrong and Mako can barely keep herself from laughing.

The mage steps forward and slaps the palm of her hand against the blade. The sword skitters out of Raleigh’s hand, and he jumps back. Mako doesn’t know if she’s afraid the mage is threatening them, or if she’s sort of glad someone else is also proving Raleigh is being completely incompetent with that thing. She thinks she might like this person if they’re not actively trying to kill both of them. “You are a silly boy playing with something you don’t understand. And if those men could find us, they would have when you screamed." So yes, that was Raleigh. "This is my home, for now at least, and I have it well warded. No one will find you as long as I choose to protect you. And it seems you need protecting more than I thought.”

“What have we walked into here?” Mako figures it’s best to know the field you’re fighting on. She doesn’t like being kept in the dark.

“A war.”

“We just left one of those.” Raleigh is reaching for the sword again, but he stops and looks guilty, like a shoe-eating dog, when the mage turns to him again.

“I know. I see many things, and I have seen you, falling to the earth here, from a place I do not know of.” The woman tosses back the hood of her blue cloak. “What sort of magic brought you here?”

“Um, a giant crack in the bottom of the ocean?” Raleigh shrugs. “You said you saw us falling, so you know more about what happened than we do. Just woke up here, that’s all I know.”

Mako slams an elbow into his ribs. “Raleigh, don’t sass her.” For all they know, she’s got witch powers that can obliterate them where they stand. “I think we accidentally fell through a connection between our world and yours. I don’t know what magic made it, or how we came here.”

“I am not sure it was an accident,” The mage turns her back and strikes a knife Mako didn’t know she was carrying onto stone, and a shower of sparks falls into a stone ring. Flames leap up and Mako shivers in the sudden warmth. She didn’t know she was cold until now. “You have an air of magic about you, and your companion has lifted the sword of Uther Pendragon. It is possible you are the ones to remove the cursed Vortigern from power.” She turns back to the fire. “Or you may have doomed us all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...absolute crap? Semi good? Should I continue or feed this whole thing to a Kaiju as soon as possible? Please let me know!


	2. You can't go home again-Mako POV

“How did you come to fall to our world?” The mage is stirring up the fire, adding some kind of leaf that smells awfully good. Mako wonders if it’s the medieval version of a truth serum. Who knows what kind of magic this mage has. Maybe she’s going to read their minds. To some people, that would seem like the most frightening magic, but somehow it doesn’t even seem all that magical when you’ve Drifted. Mako knows the technology behind getting inside someone else’s head, and even if the mage does it differently, it still isn’t terribly disconcerting.

“It’s a long story.” Raleigh sits down and picks up the sword, laying it next to him. “Like I said, there was a war going on.”

“Our world was being invaded by…” Mako searches for something to say because no one here is going to understand what Kaiju means. “by giant dragons.”

“And we’re the knights in shining armor who have to go fight them,” Raleigh adds. “Hey, that’s actually kinda funny. It is armor, it’s just a lot bigger…” He stops when both Mako and the Mage glare at him. “What? Not funny? I thought it was at least a little bit ironic.”

“Stop being an idiot.” Mako wonders if exposure to the Breach did some mental damage.

Five hours earlier…

Mako can hear Raleigh yelling something about only needing to fall, but her brain is starting to fog from lack of oxygen. He’s going to manually override Gipsy himself. Then her head clears as she gets a gasp of air. He’s switched his system over to her. _Raleigh’s going to die._ She can see it in the drift already, his determination, the peace he’s found knowing he’ll die destroying the monsters who killed his brother. And saving her. He’s sending her out in the evac pod.

Mako can’t quite grasp that she’s losing him so soon after finding someone she was compatible with, someone who finally let her fight. But if he succeeds there will be no reason left to fight. She won’t need to be compatible. That’s frightening in and of itself. What can she do in a world with no Kaiju left to fight, and no _Sensei_ left to help her decide what to do next? She will be alone, in a world she won’t belong in anymore. Maybe she should be the one to fall now.

She stops the emergency procedure, and Raleigh stops what he’s doing to glance at her. “Mako, you need to go.”

“There’s nothing left up there for me. You and Gipsy are all I have left.” He doesn’t argue, because she’s inside his head and he can see that it’s true. They set the manual override together, and Mako braces herself for the fire, the nothingness. Raleigh sees her thoughts and grabs her arm, still insisting they should try to get out. She follows numbly, because she can see that he knows they stand no chance at all. He shouldn’t try to lie to someone reading his thoughts. The escape pods are damaged, Mako has no idea if they’ll work. But she’d built in a manual override for them too, though, just like the nuclear core, and they eject just seconds before Gipsy becomes a searing ball of light. Mako thinks of only two things. _One. A part of me just died, because Gipsy had my blood and sweat and my mind inside her, and now she’s gone. Two. We’re too close to the blast; and Gipsy isn’t the only one dying today_.

There’s a loud crashing sound, and Mako feels a jarring impact. Underneath her. That’s not right. It feels like the escape pod fell onto something, when it should be bobbing to the surface. Have they fallen through the breach into that red, terrible world? What will happen to them now? Mako would have preferred dying in the blast from Gipsy to whatever those creatures will do to the people who stopped their plans to take over the world.

She’s almost afraid to climb out of the pod, but she has to. She can’t just wait here to be found. Maybe if she gets out she’ll have a chance to escape…and then what? Live the rest of her probably very short life in hiding on an alien world? Hope that before those monsters find her the air suffocates her or she and Raleigh die of some weird…Raleigh. If he’s here she has to find him before those monsters do. She’ll never forgive herself if she escapes but he’s found and tortured, because she has no doubt that’s what will happen.

She shoves the top of the escape pod off, and a gust of chilly rain blows in. She blinks and glances up, and the sky is grey. _Does it look different when we’re underneath it?_ She stands up, and the world around her looks like Earth. A very dismal, grey, rainy Earth. Like visiting _Sensei_ ’s family in England. Maybe they somehow did end up back on the right planet. But why were they falling?

She sees the second pod a few yards away from hers. It’s not open yet. Maybe Raleigh is just as worried as she was. Maybe he landed harder than her and is unconscious. There are more reasons for him not to be out of it than just that he’s dead. She scrambles across the rough ground (it’s a meadow next to a stream, with all sorts of little rocks and dips in the ground, and walking in Drivesuits is a nightmare), and opens the release for the cover. Raleigh is lying inside, still and quiet. Mako leans over to check his vital reads in the pod’s screen, and he grabs her arm and flips her sideways. She yelps.

“Mako?”

“Yes Raleigh, it’s me.”

“Thought you mighta been one of those things. Sorry.”

“No, I probably would have done the same thing to you. I thought we landed on their planet too.”

“We didn’t?” He pulls his helmet off and sits up. His hair’s sticking out in all directions and Mako resists the urge to giggle. She blames the uncontrollable humor on the near-death experience. She’s still a little shaken.

“I don’t know where we are though. It looks like England to me.”

“Well, it smells like a cattle farm.”

Raleigh is right. The air smells overwhelmingly of animals. And dirt and rain and woods. There’s absolutely no smoggy odors of exhaust or metal, aside from the escape pods. She can smell the plastic and circuit burn of the drivesuits, but she wonders, if she took them off and changed clothes, would she smell anything remotely mechanical or manmade? This place seems somehow pristine and calm. She pokes the button to activate the pod’s call beacon. But Raleigh’s must be broken, because there’s no indication that the signal was received. They walk back to hers and try it, with the same result. The pods are sending signals, but they’re going nowhere. Maybe the blast or the proximity to the Breach damaged something.

“I think we should see if we can find someone.” She can see cattle tracks in the meadow, and a large patch of churned dirt where they must have been grazing when the pods fell out of the sky. Mako feels a little guilty for stampeding someone’s animals and hopes they haven’t gone far. “Someone must own the animals.” Raleigh nods and climbs out, promptly loses his balance, and falls. It’s just his luck there’s a pile of cattle droppings in his way.

“Oh shit. Literally.” Raleigh stands up clumsily, shaking his hand and wiping it on the grass. Mako shakes her head.

The trek across the field is fairly treacherous when they have to take into account the holes and fresh cattle manure. Both Mako and Raleigh have slipped on the mess a few times by the time they get to the end of the field, and the smell is starting to get old. Mako is used to the smell of arc welding smoke in her hair, and contact gel permeating her skin. Cattle is not familiar.

There’s a small house at the edge of the trees, and it looks like something straight out of one of the rebuilt historic sites Stacker took her to. The walls are stone and the roof is thatched. Maybe they are in some historic park.

There’s a small fire going out outdoors, with a kettle over it, and laundry hanging on a line, the kind of tunics and leggings medieval reenactors would wear. _Ok, we are in a historic site._ Mako wonders if it’s something like Stonehenge. Newt said the Kaiju came to Earth years ago, and were the basis for all the dragon legends. Maybe Stonehenge is where the original Breach was and people marked it. That would explain why they’re in a whole different part of the world. They did fall from the Breach back to Earth, just at the wrong location.

“Where is everyone?” Raleigh’s looking around, studying the half-cooked food, the door wide open on the hut house, and a line of footprints leading away, toes dug in like they were running, three small sets and two large ones.

“Probably saw giant things falling from the sky and figured they were in the path of a meteor shower,” Mako says. “Maybe they left a phone inside or something.” Historic sites are generally okay with people going inside, so she steps through the door.

Well, this place was clearly going for the full immersive experience. The hut smells like smoke, but overwhelmingly like sweaty human bodies. Mako chokes a little. Raleigh walks in and raises an eyebrow.

“You okay?”

“Yes.” She sneezes.

“Obviously you never lived in a room with boys.” She smiles in spite of herself, knowing from the Drift that he’s talking about his brother. “Yance and I would have considered this an acceptable level of clean.”

Mako wanders around, letting her nose adjust to the smell. This is detail in the extreme. Nothing modern inside at all. No phones, no portable chargers, not even paper and a pencil. Mako removes the small portable beacon from her suit. It isn’t strong enough to reach the Hong Kong Shatterdome, but she can check to see if it’s getting signal, because she’s starting to get the feeling that something is wrong here. And she doesn’t like where her mind is taking her.

The beacon picks up no signal of any kind. It can’t find wifi, a cell tower, or even a satellite to make a call with. And she can’t quite convince herself that it’s broken.

“Raleigh, I don’t think this is a historic site. Maybe it will be a thousand years, but not right now. I think we’re actually in the past.”


	3. (Not-so) Merry Old England-Raleigh POV

“You can’t just steal people’s clothes, Mako.” He’s still not convinced she’s right with this crazy theory that they fell backward through time. Maybe the Breach just fried all their tech. Maybe this is just an area that gets really bad signals.

“We’re going to stick out too much in these Drivesuits. Do you want to get caught and maybe killed because we look like outsiders? Plus, we smell like a barn now.” Mako throws him a loose white shirt and a pair of brown pants. There are two dresses, but Mako takes one look at the skirts, which are long enough to brush the ground, and shakes her head. There’s a grey tunic she chooses instead, and a cloak with a hood that should hide her hair, because in a place as medieval looking as this he doubts anyone is dying in indigo streaks. She grabs a second pair of pants and a belt.

If they have gotten stuck in the past, then this is a great idea. If not, then they’re going to look like a couple of crazy people when they actually find civilization. Not, he reminds himself, that the Drivesuits are any less of a weird-looking alternative.

The Drivesuits are incredibly difficult to remove without the power tools Shatterdomes use, but there’s an emergency tool kit in each escape pod for pilots to use if they’re stranded somewhere and need to get part of a suit off for a medical emergency. They started making that standard issue when a Korean Jaeger team lost a member to blood loss because her partner couldn’t get her Drivesuit off to apply pressure.

Once the heavy plating is off, which is a huge relief because Raleigh’s muscles were already sore and cramping from the fight, and walking in the heavy suits wasn’t doing him any favors, he walks down toward the stream to wash off the slimy contact gel that is on his skin under the tighter circuit suit. Mako follows him. Once you’ve been inside one another’s heads, privacy isn’t really a concept anymore. The water is cold, and he’s glad to pull the tunic on afterward, even if the material is coarse and chafes at the circuit burns on his right shoulder, now a pretty much mirror image of his left.

Mako looks like some kind of anime heroine in her belted tunic and leggings, hair tucked up under the hood of a cloak that makes her seem as mysterious and dangerous as she is. Raleigh’s own reflection looks more like a character from a cheesy seventies Robin Hood movie. The tunic and pants are both a little too tight, and being barefoot looks way less good on him than Mako.

“If you tell anyone at the Shatterdome about this, I’ll kill you.” Raleigh mutters. _If we ever make it back there. Oh, Chuck will…would have…never let me live this down._ He wonders if the Striker Eureka pilots are around here somewhere. But they weren’t close enough to the Breach, probably.

Mako tilts her head, then tosses back her hood and cups a hand to her ear. “I think I hear something.”

“People?”

“Maybe.” She starts walking upstream of the river. “Sounded like there’s something this way.” Raleigh has very little choice in the matter. He doesn’t want her going off alone. Who knows what lurks in the woods here? Although honestly he’s pretty sure if she encountered a freaking dragon Mako would just stare it down and then punch it in the nose. If he’s being honest, he’s the one who really doesn’t want to be alone. Something about this place is creeping him out, like a bad dream where when you wake up you can’t remember it but you know it was horrifying. He feels like he’s been here before.

It takes about three hours, five thorns and one stubborn branch splinter in Raleigh’s feet, and two ungraceful tumbles into the river (one was him, one was Mako when he collided with her the second time he slipped) before they reach what is clearly a town. And Mako is proven right beyond a doubt. The town is a collection of little mud and thatch huts surrounding a massive castle with a gigantic tower. And everyone, literally everyone, is dressed like him and Mako. He can’t pretend maybe this is just a tourist town with people in costume, or some really elaborate movie set. They’re either in the past, or on some other world that looks like a Rennaisance festival came to town.

They try to avoid the random people passing them for the most part, since neither of them are sure what language is going to be required. But when they get to the knots of two and three people, it’s clear that it’s English.

“Have you seen what’s happened to the river?”

“Never been a thing like that in my lifetime.”

“Think it’s the mages fighting back?”

“If it is, the King’ll have them wiped out. He won’t stand for this.”

Mako glances at him. “Do you think we dragged something through with us?”

Raleigh really hopes it isn’t Gipsy. One, that means the town will be looking for outsiders, and two, it means they probably didn’t close the breach. But the town isn’t a smoking heap of radioactive rubble, so at least Gipsy probably didn’t self-destruct.

It’s already getting dark, and they certainly don’t have money for a place to stay. There are docks down by the river, sticking awfully far out of the water. Raleigh thinks they’re at least a decent alternative to sitting out in the rain all night. He doesn’t know if there are vagrancy laws in whatever this place is, but if there are he doesn’t want to get thrown in some dungeon for sleeping on the streets in the town.

They pick their way down the bank, sliding on mud and slimy stones. It looks like the river used to be higher, and very recently. Maybe it’s drying up and that’s what people are talking about.

Mako slips under the dock first, then turns on the small flashlight she took from the escape pod. She has to be careful with it, no one wants to get burned at a stake for witchcraft by accident.

“Raleigh, come look.” She sounds a little awed. He ducks under, sliding in the mud, and then sees exactly what has Mako so interested. The gleam of her flashlight is bouncing off shining silver metal. A sword, jammed almost hilt deep, in a rock shaped vaguely like a kneeling man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really deviating from the movie's world here, but trust me, it all makes sense later. Suffice to say for now, Vortigern thought he got rid of the born king that night on the docks, and also the river doesn't react until it senses the presence of an heir. Thus the dock being built over Uther's stone and the sword. Vortigern can't destroy it, but he doesn't want to be reminded of his inadequacy to actually wield Excalibur, so the stone is left hidden underwater. Until now.


	4. It seemed like a good idea at the time-Mako POV

“I’m gonna try. Just for the heck of it.” Raleigh is reaching for the hilt already.

“What happens if it works?”

“Then I’m king of England, _duuuhhh,”_ he rolls his eyes at Mako like she’s stupid. Like _Sen_ …Like Stacker (if she calls him _Sensei_ she’ll fall apart now; she hasn’t seen him here and she doesn’t think he was as lucky as they were) didn’t read her the legends about magic swords and once and future kings when she couldn’t sleep.

“Raleigh, be serious.”

He shrugs, spreading his arms wide. “I am. Where do you think we are?”

“Somewhere in the late 8th century. England, most likely, judging by climate and terrain.”

“Camelot.”

“Camelot was a legend.”

“Maybe not here. I mean, why else would there be a sword in a stone?” He’s got a good point. Maybe this isn’t even real though, just some sort of incredibly detailed R.A.B.I.T. that they’re trapped in. But R.A.B.I.T.s are memories, and this…this is like imagination gone a bit over the top.

Raleigh grabs the sword and tugs, and for a second nothing happens. Mako’s about to start teasing him about being unworthy when the dang thing starts moving. All the odd little runic letters on the blade start glowing, and the next minute Raleigh’s laying on his back in the mud, there’s a gaping hole blown in the dock over their heads, and Mako thinks she may have permanently lost some of her vision. That was brighter than an arc weld flare.

“Shit. Someone musta seen that.” Raleigh is trying to get up and failing, sliding in the mud. “We better get out of here.” Mako couldn’t agree more. Honestly, they can’t do anything without something going wrong, can they?

They’re scrambling up the bank when they hear all the yelling, and, over that, the clank of chain mail and horse hooves.

“Stay down!” Mako shoves Raleigh back into the mud and drops down herself, watching hooves fly by on the road. As soon as they pass, she and Raleigh scramble the last few steps onto the road. They need to get out of here. Where to, she doesn’t know. Going in the opposite direction of the horsemen seems like the best idea for now. She hands Raleigh her cloak. Covering the sword with glowing writing on it seems a little more of an immediate concern than covering blue hair.

They might have made it if the ground hadn’t been so rough, and if they hadn’t tripped over each other’s feet and dropped the sword. The cloak falls back and the second Raleigh’s hand touches the hilt, the light flares up. Not nearly as much as last time, but enough that Mako hears shouts in the distance. They stand up and run again, blindly, onto an open moor ground full of fallen boulders, that looks vaguely like the site of a siege that used trebuchets. In front of them are the remains of what might have been a castle, surrounded by ravines and crags. If they can get in there, there might be places to hide. But she doesn’t think they can make it in time. She and Raleigh are on foot, and the horses are coming up fast.

Raleigh seems to be contemplating whether it’s worth trying to stand and fight. He seems entirely too excited that the thing is a magic sword. “What do I do?”

“I don’t know!”

“You’re the swordmaker. You’re supposed to know what to do with swords.”

“Raleigh, that is a glowing magic sword you just _pulled out of a rock._ My father didn’t make that kind.”

“They don’t seem to be taking the hint that we’re really not interested in meeting them right now.”

 “I don’t know what it does and I don’t know if I want to. You can’t just attack them and hope that thing somehow manages to turn you into an unbeatable swordsman. You were struggling just to use Gipsy’s chainsword.”

She can’t believe he thinks he can actually take on the forty or so armed knights behind them. Even magic isn’t going to change the fact that Raleigh Becket is not very careful in a fight. She knows his style, aggressive and just as likely to get him hurt as it is to actually take out his opponent. She can just see him cutting off his own foot with that sword. Or hers. They’re better off to hide.

She scrambles up part of a fallen wall, Raleigh following, and steps into a dark, musty cave. And comes face to face with a slender figure, cloaked in blue, and a raven perched on one shoulder.

Yes, this definitely was not how Mako was expecting today to go.


	5. Hindsight is always 20/20-Raleigh POV

Raleigh wishes he would have listened to Mako and never touched that sword. He wishes Mako would have listened and let him send her home. At least then she might be safe back at the Shatterdome, not here in some godforsaken magic world with people trying to kill them if they leave this cave, and someone inside it he’s not sure he trusts. Or would her escape pod only have found its way to yet another world? Would they both be trapped, in different places, unable to ever find each other again?

He rolls over and winces when the stone presses against bruises from the fight with Slattern. He’s used to sleeping on hard surfaces, but this cave is officially the worst place he’s ever tried to sleep. It’s not the damp floor, because the unfinished bunkhouses for the Wall workers in Nome ended up with three inches of water on the floor every time snow melted. And it isn’t the cold. Raleigh is from Alaska. He can handle cold. It isn’t even the weird musty-smoke-dead animal smell. Bunkhouses after a long day or kaiju shit all over your jaeger are much worse. It’s the creepy mage lady sitting in the corner.

She looks like she’s asleep but he can’t be sure. Raleigh doesn’t know if mages sleep. He also doesn’t know when he started believing she was telling the truth. She’s actually a mage. He might have a harder time believing her if he hadn’t just pulled a glowing sword out of a giant rock.

He still isn’t sure exactly what’s happening. It seems completely unbelievable that they really are back on Earth, only in the past. Camelot and Arthur were only legends, or at least that’s what he’s always heard. Magic doesn’t exist, not in the real world. But really, after half the world was torn apart by giant monsters coming out of a crack in the bottom of the Pacific, he guesses everything’s up for grabs. Maybe magic is a real thing. Or maybe it was. Maybe they’re close to one of the old gaps Newt was talking about, and the Breach alters reality like that. He’s grasping for anything that might be a logical explanation for this, because he doesn’t like not knowing.

It could be some freaky sort of Twilight Zone parallel reality, where legends are true. But that still doesn’t explain how he was able to pull out that sword. He thought even in the legends only Arthur could do that.

If he’s being honest with himself, he wants to know what’s going on so he can fix this. If this is Earth history, he just altered it, an awful lot. And if it’s some parallel legend world, then he’s somehow inserted himself in the story. And the thing about legends is, they tend to become famous because a lot of crazy stuff happened to them. Raleigh can’t deal with too much more crazy. He’s been a legend once already, and look how that turned out. He got too confident, too cocky, and now Yance is gone. What if he does something idiotic here and loses Mako?

He just wants to put the damn sword back and leave, but he doesn’t know how they’d ever make it out of this place, and by now people are probably looking for him. He wonders how easy it would be to blend in, if he and Mako are just going to have to make the best of a life here, wherever here is.

He wonders if they’ll accidentally end up reading about themselves in history books before they know it’s them. He wonders if they do something like that, if they’ll suddenly remember hearing about it. If you change the past, do you change your own past, even though this is future you? What if he tries to leave them a message, some kind of warning? Chances are it wouldn’t survive the time difference, and if it did, and they managed to avoid ending up here, then the warning wouldn’t exist anymore, and so would they end up here anyway?

This is not helping him sleep. He’s overthinking everything, and it reminds him too much of when he and Yance used to watch reruns of _Doctor Who_ and debate the logistics of time travel. It was fun to think about when it was all theoretical, and no one had to worry about actual cracks in space and time, or the real repercussions of falling into other times or other worlds. He still can’t figure out which one this is.

He sits up, and in the few faint streaks of moonlight coming through the opening of the cave, he sees Mako, sitting cross-legged by the last few embers of the fire, holding the sword. She touches it almost reverently, and his mind immediately fills with images of a man standing in front of a forge, metal sparks flying while a young Mako watches, entranced. Her sleep is haunted by memories tonight too.


	6. Here there be dragons-Mako POV

Mako decides if the Mage touched the sword, it must not kill anyone who isn’t Raleigh. Especially if Mako has some magic in her too. She doesn’t know if she believes that, but part of her wants to. Everything else here has been so surreal; she isn’t as crazy as she thinks she is to believe the mage is right.

It really is a beautiful sword, light and well-balanced, almost too perfect. It’s a bit long for her, but exactly the right weight and length for someone Raleigh’s size. The steel looks like wood grain, with all the lines weaving through it, but it seems solid in Mako’s hands. The marks, to someone who didn't know blades, would look like forging flaws, or impurities in the steel. Mako knows better. This is amazing craftsmanship that has only recently been able to be duplicated. She remembers reading voraciously an article her father used to have in a scrapbook, about a man who forged a replica of a famous British sword. It had the same twisted core. She wonders now if maybe that sword was made by the same craftsman who created Excalibur. She loved looking at the pictures in that article, the swirling lines throughout the blade. Now she holds an original in her own hands. The runes engraved near the hilt are fascinating. She traces them with a finger, wishing she could read them for herself.

“Having fun?” Raleigh’s voice startles her, and she quickly shoves the sword off her lap, looking up at him guiltily.

“I-It’s just been so long since I’ve held a real sword.”

“I’m not mad, Mako. You can fool with that thing all you want. Can you tell me anything about it?”

“Not much. It’s not like the ones my father made. I can tell you it’s made to suit someone your height and strength. It’s made to be used with one hand or two, somewhere between the weights for either one, but I think it leans a bit toward the two-handed weight. It's forged iron, looks like bundles of alternately twisted rods.” She holds the sword up to the dim light, letting it catch the glow on all the swirling lines. "It's amazing craftsmanship, something even in our own time people have a hard time making."

Raleigh laughs and shakes his head. “And you said you didn’t know much about it. Liar.”

Mako turns her attention back to the blade. “I don’t know what quality of metal exactly was used, or what its tolerances are. Father used to say swords were like people. Every one was different, not one was perfect, and any of them could only take so much before they broke. This one…It feels…too perfect.”

“So did Gipsy when I got inside her again after you fixed her. It’s what something feels like when it really belongs. I think that crazy lady might be right. Maybe we’re here for more reason than that the Breach randomly spit us out here.”

She doesn’t know if she can believe that. There has never been any rationale to her life, or rather, if there is one she’d like to have an argument with it, because it’s destroyed her entire life. Why did she live when so many others died? Why are she and Raleigh compatible? Why did they fall through the Breach instead of dying in the blast?

“Do you think we could…damage things? If we do something wrong?” Mako can feel Raleigh’s concern and fear. She doesn’t envy him his position. He’s the one with the fate of this world in his hands, or so the Mage says. And he doesn’t even know why.

“I don’t know.”

“Guess we oughta try to get some sleep.” He sounds reluctant, and she wonders if the same nightmare that woke her is the one Raleigh fears having if he closes his eyes. She still remembers the horrible reddish glow of a burning sky, the suffocating weight of an atmosphere that isn’t her own, and the terrible gleam in alien eyes as the creatures drag Raleigh in front of her and kill him. She doesn’t want to see blood soaking into copper dirt.

She needs to know he’s safe and there beside her, not captured and tortured by those monsters. She puts her hand over his, and he doesn’t move away, probably as much in need of reassurance as she is. The only familiar thing in this place is each other.

They both wake up when a deep, horribly familiar roar echoes through the cave. The Mage is on her feet, sending some sort of spell over the fire. Her face is lined with worry.

“What is that?” Raleigh is only half-awake, and Mako’s ghost Drift is filled with images of the Kaiju tearing into Hong Kong, yanking Gipsy off the ground, spearing a horned head through the Jaeger’s shoulder…

“A dragon. Be silent.” The Mage continues her spell. “It will not find us if you give it no reason.” Mako lies very still, her own mind humming with thoughts of a burning city street and a horrific roaring behind her. There is a deep swishing sound like the flap of massive bat wings, and then a long _shape_ blots out the faint morning light coming in through the mouth of the cave. Mako stifles a gasp. She knows that silhouette. _Otachi_.

The Kaiju wheels above them, screeching, and then flies off in the direction of the town they ran from last night. Mako, when she feels capable of moving again, turns to look at Raleigh. His eyes are as wide as hers must be.

“Is that…”

“A Kaiju.” Apparently Newt was right about the origin of the dragon legends after all.

“Ya know, I like the magic glowing sword and all, but I’d trade it for Gipsy any day. ‘Specially right now.” Mako couldn’t agree with him more. It isn’t bad enough that they’re trapped in the past, part of a war they didn’t want. Now it’s clear that it’s the same war they’ve been fighting on the other side of the Breach, and without a Jaeger, Mako doesn’t see how they stand a chance of winning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I first drafted this chapter I had the assumption that that wood grain look on Excalibur was due to magic. Then I had the fantastic opportunity of attending a blacksmith show and meeting the man Mako talks about, who forged a replica Viking sword. After looking at pictures and reading the full article, I learned that those marks are due to the twisted rod bundles that form the core of the sword, which is actually really amazing and a difficult thing to achieve even today. I rewrote the chapter to make this apparent (Because Mako, unlike me, would actually know things like this). If you want to see more about the sword she mentions, you can see pictures and read an article at http://lanktonmetaldesign.com/sutton-hoo-sword/


	7. Destiny-Raleigh POV

“What…do you know what those dragons are?” Raleigh can’t get the horrible image of the Kaiju sweeping over the ruined tower out of his head. Those things can take down Jaegers. Even if this freakish sword of his is magic, he’s pretty sure it won’t make him impervious to teeth and claws and toxic Kaiju Blue. And they probably expect him to go out there and be their knight in shining armor who will slay their dragon. He wouldn’t mind being that, if he had his armor. The giant nuclear-core powered armor.

“They are called by the king. Vortigern uses his magic to open the chasm at the standing stones, and he brings them to him. He uses them to keep the villages in line.”

This Vortigern guy is summoning Kaiju. That’s gonna backfire. Raleigh wonders if he really is using magic to open a Breach, or if the guy is just smart enough to have calculated, like the War Clock does, when the Breach here will open. Raleigh didn’t know anyone could control those monsters. Did the guy drift with them like that idiot Geisler?

“Is this the war we’re supposed to be ending?” Mako sounds pretty upset. “We can’t fight those things. We know what they are and we’ve seen what they do. They came to our world too. It took giant suits of armor to even have a chance to defeat them.”

“We can provide you armor.”

“I mean armor as large as a castle.” The Mage looks a bit startled.

“We were sure the heir would be powerful enough.”

“What ‘heir’?” Raleigh has the sinking feeling he knows who that is going to be.

“The descendant of our true king, Uther Pendragon. Our born king, Arthur, or his children.”

Okay awesome. It is Camelot. And somehow, Raleigh has gotten himself in the middle of this because he was trying to show off and…and impress Mako. And now they want him to kill Kaiju with a magic sword. He really does have the worst timing.

“But Raleigh and I aren’t even from this world. He can’t be the heir to your kingdom.”

“He drew the sword. Only the born king can lift it.” The Mage doesn’t even raise her voice or sound like she’s arguing, even though Mako is clearly becoming more and more upset. And he thought Mako was cool and collected. But she knows as well as he does that this is his death sentence, and she is refusing to let him go without a fight.

“Maybe it’s a fluke. A genetic similarity.”

“You fell through the same chasm as the dragons, did you not?”

“We did.”

“Let me tell you a story.” The Mage stirs the fire and holds out a leather bottle of wine to the two of them. Raleigh drinks almost half of it before handing it to Mako. He has a feeling he’s going to wish he had more. “There was a war here, against a magician named Mordred. He was defeated by Uther and his brother Vortigern. However, Uther was the one heralded as the hero and king and Vortigern became convinced that he deserved it more than Uther did. So he staged a coup and attempted to take the throne by force. He pursued Uther and his wife and young son, and Uther died fighting him on the river dock. As he died, his sword Excalibur was plunged into his body, and he turned to stone, sinking into the depths of the river. Vortigern killed his wife Igraine, but the son survived. Rather than kill him immediately, Vortigern decided to make a clear example. He had discovered the chasm, and his dragons won him the war. As an offering to appease the dragons’ unreasoning wrath, the child was ‘sacrificed’ to the other world.”

“Ok, so?”

“He fell not to his doom but apparently into your world, many centuries ago. He grew, ignorant of his past. His descendants were unaware they carried the blood of kings. It appears they still are.”

Raleigh glances from the mage to Mako and back again. “Wait, what?”

“She’s saying you’re the great-great-great…however many of those it needs…grandson of their lost king.”

“Oh shit.” So he can’t even say because he’s from another world he can’t be their warrior. He is. He’s the descendant of freaking King Arthur himself. Of course. It’s just the Becket family luck. He _would_ be the one with a destiny that’s a suicide mission.


	8. Movie training montages lie-Mako POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long! Real Life got in the way, but after some very interesting recent events, I got inspired to work on this again!  
> I had to make an edit to chapter 6, please go back and read at least the end notes.

“Well, if you’re supposed to be able to use a really powerful, famous magic sword, the least we can do is make sure you don’t disgrace yourself and it by acting like a toddler with a stick.” Mako tosses Raleigh a sturdy, straight branch she’s cut from a sapling growing in the rubble outside the cave, and picks up its twin.

“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have feelings.” As if to prove Raleigh wrong, the sword seems to glow just a little more in the dawn light. Raleigh shakes his head and yawns. Mako’s pretty sure he’s internally cursing her for waking him up at this hour, but they have Kaiju to fight and he’s already proven he’s totally inept with a blade. She’s sort of glad he’s not the one the Mage said had latent magic powers. Although Mako’s seen no signs of them yet. No telekinetic branch slicing; although she wished for it more than once. She’ll have blisters for days from using the serrated edge of her survival knife on that tree. She might have been able to ask Raleigh for help, but it somehow would have felt really disrespectful to use Excalibur for slicing wood. Although maybe the sword would be forgiving knowing the reason they’re cutting those branches is to teach Raleigh enough remedial swordsmanship that he doesn’t drop the poor thing in their first real fight.

She’s not sure when she started thinking of Excalibur as sentient. Sometime last night, when she was tracing the twisted forging lines and wondering if it could really stand up to the corrosive Kaiju blood. She’d rubbed her fingers over the runes and in the back of her mind, almost like a Ghost Drift, something whispered. A language older than time itself, but one she thought she would have understood had the voice been a bit louder.

Even if Excalibur would have been forgiving, Mako isn’t sure she would have wanted to risk Raleigh accidentally missing the branch and slicing off her hand, or his own toes. He’s proving to be even worse with it than she had thought, and she’s more than a little concerned that the fate of this place, and her own life, seem to be on the shoulders of someone who has no idea what he’s doing. She has to impart years of knowledge and training in days. Maybe even less time than that, although the mage assures her the soldiers cannot penetrate her magic wards.

“I thought fencing was a requirement for Rangers.” It was for her, but Raleigh acts like the last time he held a sword was playing knights and dragons as a ten year old.

“It was. I was a rather miserable failure at that. Yance and I both decided that for our sanity and his safety, we’d stick to other weapons. And those things were light.” He shrugs. “Pretty sure they took one look at my technique and decided anything with a sharp edge should be kept as far away from me as possible.”

“Well, there’s no choice now.” Mako raises her stick. “It’s not so different from stick fighting except that you can’t touch the blade to your own body. Most positions and strikes are the same.” Stick training was meant to teach soldiers how to use swords. She doesn’t understand why it didn’t work with Raleigh. Anyone else with as much training as he has shouldn’t be having so many problems. But somehow, despite everything, he’s always the one people decide to rely on.

_I've studied your fighting techniques and strategy…I think you're unpredictable. You have a habit of deviating from standard combat techniques. I don't think you're the right man for this mission._

Mako misjudged Raleigh’s capability once. And he’d surprised her. Maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss him. She likes rules, predictability, structure. Raleigh likes surprising people. Maybe she’s the one who needs to rethink some strategy.

“Okay, forget the positions.” Raleigh looks stunned, and he lets his stick drop. Even that inch or so margin is all Mako needs. She’s past his guard in a second, stick against his throat.

“Never, ever, let your guard down.” She steps back, smirking slightly.

“Okay. Bring it, Mulan.” He raises his stick, but he’s left his entire left side open.

“Mulan was Chinese, Raleigh.” She aims a low stab for his left thigh, but he somehow manages to anticipate and block it. She’s about to be suitably impressed with that when she feels the little tingle at the back of her mind. Ghost Drift.

“Rals, that’s cheating.”

He blinks. Stares. She’s going in for yet another free strike, _honestly he really listens to nothing I tell him_ , when she feels it too. _Only Yance ever called me Rals._

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was like having a little bit of him back, for a second. That and the fact that you’re kicking my ass at this.”

“Yancy was good with swords?”

“I dunno. He was a lot better than me, but that’s a really low bar to set.”

Mako has a sudden inspiration. It’s not a great one, but they haven’t operated on foolproof since the PPDC became the resistance. It’s a chance. And she’s learned very well how to take chances. “Raleigh, the Drift is strongest when we fight. I need you to see if it’s strong enough for you to tap into my skills. Or Yance’s. Whichever is easiest to reach.”

She expects Raleigh to resist. To tell her dredging up his brother’s memory just so he becomes semi-competent at this is an atrocity. But he just nods.

Mako feels a surge of relief. Maybe this isn’t a lost cause. “I think he’d be okay with it if it means keeping you alive.”

“He would. Hell, Yance woulda loved this. He was always into that Dungeons and Dragons stuff. Played for hours with his friends in the Academy, when he was supposed to be sleeping.” Raleigh barks out a laugh. “He tried to teach me, but I was never very good at it. I kept making really terrible decisions and dying.” Any confidence Mako was beginning to have is evaporating again. _If you can’t survive a game of D &D, how are you supposed to make it in a world where all that is real life?_ But it really does sound exactly like how this whole disaster is going. _You see a sword impaled in a stone, what are you going to do? “Try to pull it out.”_ No wonder he always died in those games. _You’ve successfully removed the sword, but now the King’s army is pursuing you._ Maybe the Yancy in his head will be able to lend some of his slightly less suicidal decision making techniques.

She can feel the difference as soon as they go back into sparring. He’s not using her skills, that much is readily apparent, but at least he’s blocking most of her strikes and even getting in a few good hits of his own, although they’re few and far between. She’s able to skip some of the remedial training she was dreading and move straight to advice on how to manage a real battle.

“The blocks are for sparring. If someone comes in to hit you like that in a real fight, you bring your blade down on their hand, or go straight for the throat.”

“You need to protect your legs. They sweep you and that’s it.”

“Don’t block so far up your blade. They can push that out of the way. Not more than ten inches above the guard.”

It’s beginning to look like he might stand a chance. And then she comes in with a jab from the side, under the arm he’s got out to block her. “You have to watch something like that. If I’d actually stabbed you, that’s the brachial artery. You’d bleed out in minutes.”

Raleigh crumples like she actually has wounded him. “Mako, please, just stop.” He sits down wearily. “You’re doing great, I swear it’s not you. I just can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can.”

“There’s not enough time. If we had a month, maybe. But Mako, there’s Kaiju out there. And you know what happens. The longer we wait, the bigger they get. That already looked like a Cat IV. Just like Otachi. What happens when tomorrow Slattern comes though?”

“You can’t fight anything now. You’ll die.” _Too blunt._

“Mako. People are dying. I’m supposed to save them and I can’t just do nothing.”

“What are you thinking?”

He doesn’t answer her. He turns to the Mage, who’s been sitting silently meditating in a corner this whole time, apparently undisturbed by all the shouting and clashing. Then Mako sees a faint glimmer around her. A silencing spell. She doesn’t even know how she knows that instantly. The Mage seems to sense Raleigh’s intent, because she looks up and the shimmer disappears.

“You said Vortigern was calling this Kai…Dragons? That he controlled the opening?”

“He does. I do not know how.”

“Do you think if you had access to his magic, you could close it?”

“He is far stronger than I am. He gained power through his treachery. Even if I knew his dark magic, I do not know if I could use it.”

“It’s the only chance we have.” Raleigh picks up Excalibur. Mako can see something different in his face, something hard. The same look he had when they were getting ready to assault the Breach. _He’s fully prepared not to come back from whatever suicidal plan he’s got._ She can’t quite see a born king under the boyish, puppy-eyed ranger she knows, but there’s something noble there, below the surface. “If we keep trying to kill the dragons, more and more will come, and every time they’ll be larger and harder to destroy. Our only chance is to stop Vortigern, before he releases another one.”

“You’ll never be able to get her to the castle alone.” Mako knows this is suicide but she’s his co-pilot. Or maybe here that’s a squire? “I’m coming with you.”

“The two of you will not be enough. And you cannot battle your way into the castle.” The Mage glances at Excalibur. “At least not yet.” She nods to a raven, and the bird caws and flaps out of the cave. “But there is another way. There are yet people who stand against the reign of tyranny and lawlessness. I will take you to them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, we meet Bedivere and Bill and the gang!


	9. We are the Resistance-Raleigh POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I played with the timelines a bit because of how I wrote Raleigh getting the sword, so I have Bedivere and Bill and the whole gang working together already.

Raleigh doesn’t think going into a city when the last one almost killed them is a great idea. Granted, this “Londinium” place is a lot bigger and easier to lose pursuit in, but there are still too many soldiers, and too many people. The city is loud and chaotic and smells horrible and wrong. Raleigh never had much good to say about cities. He’s lived in a lot, but he always liked them better when they didn’t feel like they were going to crush him. That was part of what he’d loved about Alaska. Lots of open space and even “cities” generally weren’t too large.

He’s used to navigating a lot of chaos and bustling, jostling people. But this is a lot different than trying not to get soup spilled on you in a Shatterdome lunch line, or avoiding getting knocked off Wall scaffolding. He’d known what to look out for in the Shatterdomes and on the Wall. He knew the mechanical beeps that signaled Jaegers being transported and the warning buzzer for hangar bay doors closing. He knew the yells of “Clear down there?” and “Coming through” that kept Wall contractors from having tools dropped fourteen stories onto their heads or walking onto the same support beam as another worker.

He isn’t used to the bellows of farmers and the tinkle of bells on sheep, or the creaking sounds and whip cracks that signaled a cart forcing its way down a narrow alley. He’d be worried about pickpockets if he had anything to steal, because the streets were so crowded he’s literally face to face with people before he realizes it. And walking through the streets with a magic sword strapped to his back is a hell of a lot different than pushing his way through people with a backpack or a portable welding kit. He’s so worried about someone taking Excalibur that he’s paying more attention to anyone who might be coming up behind him than he is to where he’s going.

The Mage, thankfully, knows exactly what she’s doing. More than once she’s pulled him out of the path of a lumbering cart or away from angry shopkeepers who thought Raleigh was trying to steal something. He has a stinging gash on one arm where a frustrated cart driver thought he didn’t move fast enough and slashed him with his whip.

The Mage pulls Raleigh and Mako into a narrow alley covered with charcoaled scrawls of words. Most of them have been blurred by the constant rain (it’s been drizzling all day and it’s starting to fall harder again now) but Raleigh can make out some things that look like they read “Born King” and “Return”.

“Blue?” The Mage whispers, and a young boy, not more than twelve or thirteen, peeks cautiously out from behind a barrel.

“What is it?” The boy rubs his smudged face with his even grimier hands. _Probably the one who’s doing all the writing here._

“I need you to take me to the others. The Sword has been lifted, and the Born King has returned.” The boy’s eyes widen and he gasps. “Shh. Not a word to anyone but George and the others, okay?”

“Who is it?” Blue (what a name for a kid, good lord, and he thought “Stacker” and “Hercules” were strange) is staring at Raleigh. “Is it him?”

“I guess so, kid.” Raleigh wishes he was this enthusiastic. He’s pretty sure that sword is his death warrant.

“Can I see it? The Sword I mean? Bedivere says it was beautiful.”

 “Sure, kid.” Raleigh’s at least used to this. The amazed hero-worship he saw in so many children when they got to meet a real Jaeger pilot. It’s no different, except that this time instead of letting them try on his “Gipsy Danger” bomber jacket, he’s showing the kid a sword he pulled out of a rock that glows. He carefully tugs Excalibur out of her (She reminds him of Gipsy, in an odd way) sheath. She’s gorgeous even in the smoky, grimy grey air of a back alley. She’s glowing faintly, and he thinks if he put two hands on her she’d do the same thing she did when he first drew her out. The power that surged through him then was so strong he came close to passing out. He thinks it was sheer luck that he’s used to controlling a lot of memories that aren’t his flooding through his head.

“Leave the boy alone.” Raleigh looks up instinctively when he hears a man’s voice from above him. An archer, bow nocked, is sitting on the gable of a roof above the alley, his arrow directed at Raleigh’s chest. _Probably thinks we’re threatening the kid._

“Bill.” The Mage’s voice is soft but scolding. “Don’t you recognize me, you fool?”

“I apologize. I thought you were a pack of thieves. Or worse, Blacklegs.” The man slides down easily from the roof, slinging his bow back across his shoulders. “This kid has been attracting their attention a bit too much lately.”

“The king is back!” Blue can’t stop himself. “It’s him, he’s here!”

“I’ll believe that when I see it, kid.” ‘Bill’ glances at Raleigh, then at the sword, and he goes several shades paler. “That’s…”

“Uther’s blade. Blue is telling the truth. The king is back.”

Bill studies Raleigh more intently, the skepticism in his gaze giving way to an awed disbelief. “On the grave of the king himself, it can’t be.” Bill turns to the Mage. “I should know Uther’s son when I saw him. He has his father’s bearing.”

“Um, actually, I’m a few generations removed.” Raleigh doesn’t want to drown the man’s hopes, but if he really was Arthur he’d at least know what the hell he was doing here. Everyone depends on him to, and he feels like a horrible disappointment. Again.

“You’re…different than I expected.” _Well, if this isn’t déjà vu I don’t know what is._ Why does he always make such awful first impressions on the people he’s supposed to be working with? They keep assuming he’s going to be their hero and he always disappoints them. He’s nothing more than a washed up ex-pilot who has no idea what’s going on. Hasn’t ever been, and won’t ever be anything different. It’s all thanks to Mako that they succeeded in even making it to the Breach. Without her he’d have died in the fight with Otachi in Hong Kong. “Where have you been living, son? They certainly didn’t teach you to talk properly.” Raleigh frowns, then remembers his American accent is definitely out of place here.

“Long story.”

“I know some people who’ll want to hear it.” Bill motions them to follow.

“I just asked Blue to take them there.” The Mage gives Bill a faint glower.

“More protection they got, the better. And put the damn thing away before someone sees you carrying around a glowing sword.” Raleigh nods silently and slips Excalibur back in her sheath.

Bill leads them on an incredibly circuitous path through the town, avoiding the guards he spits at after they pass, with muttered curses about “Blackleg scum.” “They fight for Vortigern,” he explains when Mako asks. “You’d best stay well away from them, lass.”

“I can take care of myself,” Mako snaps, and Raleigh thinks she might be about to challenge Bill to a sparring bout on the spot. He’s pretty sure the only reason she doesn’t is that Bill holds up a hand to halt them. They’re standing outside a building whose worn sign is clearly that of a brothel. Mako stiffens more.

“This is one of our meeting places. The women make sure we stay safe. Blacklegs get distracted real fast before they get too far searching this place.” Bill chuckles and Mako glares. They duck inside, and Raleigh blinks, eyes struggling to adjust to the dim interior that smells like smoke and sweat and strange herbal odors that can’t quite cover up the unmistakable smell of what goes on here. A girl in a blouse falling off one shoulder sidles up to him, and he pulls back. He’s also more or less used to this, although the girls who used to want to get in bed with him were Jaeger groupies, not women who made a living at this. Raleigh can’t see Mako, but he can feel her mounting anger through the Ghost Drift. He has to make sure this ends fast, or he has a feeling the girl’s going to be on the floor in a choke hold.

“Leave him alone, he’s with me.” Bill pushes through. “Are the others here?” he asks a slender blond woman washing a table.

“Back Lack and Wet Stick are. Bedivere is with George. Some trouble with the Vikings I believe.” _More bizarre names. Code words for members of some kind of resistance, or do they really torture their kids this way?_

“Then we’ll wait. It’s Bedivere we need to see.” Bill pulls them through the halls to a quieter and slightly less reeking room. Raleigh sits down, slumping against the wall. It looks like everyone is sure he’s the person they need. _Why does everyone depend on me all the time? I just let people down._ He doesn’t want to do this, not now. If it was just him, maybe he’d be willing to take some suicidal risk. But all these people are suffering because of the king on the throne now. And if Raleigh fails, he fails them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wait until Mako meets George...there may or may not be a somewhat serious contest of "anything you can do I can do better"...


	10. Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting-Raleigh POV

Bill’s idea of waiting, it turns out, is not Raleigh’s. Raleigh just wants to be left alone to worry about how badly he’s going to mess this up for everyone. But Bill seems determined not to give him a minute’s peace. He still doesn’t seem to believe Raleigh’s claim that he doesn’t know about any of this, and he wants answers.

“How can you possibly be a great-great grandson or whatever of Uther? It’s been barely five and a score years since the king died.”

“Goosefat, Uther’s son was thrown through a tear in our world. Time passes differently where he was.” Raleigh is glad the Mage is fielding most of the questions, because he’s tired and his head aches and he just wants to get this over with as soon as possible.  
“You sure he wasn’t one of Vortigern’s spies?”

“His people were trying _to kill us._ ” Mako looks dangerously close to tearing into Bill. “Besides, why did you bring us here if you didn’t think you could trust us?”

“Because if Bedivere and George don’t believe your story, they’ll kill you before you have a chance to ever leave.” Bill leans back on the wall.

“What kind of a name is Goosefat anyway?” Raleigh figures he’s been interrogated enough today, now he at least should get to ask one question.

“It’s ‘cause I’m too quick to ever be caught by any of the Usurper’s men.” Bill chuckles. “I’ve raided their supply barges five times, and they have yet to find me. Last time was a bit close,” He rolls up one sleeve to show a long, still-red scar, “But they’re going to have to be faster than that to hang my head on their battlements.”

Raleigh doesn’t want to think about that. He’s pretty sure that’s what will happen to him if he fails. Then the door opens, and one of the girls is leaning in. “Bedivere and the others are back.” She leads them out into a small courtyard, where a tall man is standing with his back to them, deep in conversation with two others, while a shorter, older man with a long moustache who looks like some of the old seers Raleigh saw on the Hong Kong streets is watching him, Mako, and the Mage like a hawk.

The tall man turns around, and for just one second Raleigh thinks it’s Stacker. Maybe somehow he fell through as well, like them, and has been here longer. But in a second he knows it’s not. “Bedivere,” the Mage says, and the man nods to her. “The born king has finally come.” She pushes Raleigh forward, none too gently. He trips over his feet and almost falls, and Bedivere looks justifiably skeptical. Now Raleigh can see why he thought this man was the Marshall. There’s the same _I was really hoping you were going to be a little more what we wanted_ look.

“Are you certain?” The man’s gaze is as sharp as a knife, and Raleigh shivers a little at how carefully he’s being scrutinized. He’s pretty sure he’s not going to live up to anyone’s expectations of a born king. “There is some resemblance, but…”

The Mage cuts him off. “He is not Uther’s son. He is generations removed, born in exile, somewhere Vortigern banished the heir by magic. He has finally come home, and he has found and drawn Excalibur. The throne is rightfully his.”

“Let me see.” Bedivere steps forward. “If you can truly wield Excalibur as she claims, there is no question of your lineage.”

Raleigh pulls the sword out from her scabbard, and the runes and blade flash blue. He can feel the energy surging up the blade into his hand, steadying into a pulsing thrum like a heartbeat. Raleigh shudders. Grabbing onto the hilt is like entering a Drift, but he doesn’t know whose memories he’s seeing. There’s a lot of fire, and shouts, and clanging metal. He’s never held on long enough to see more, because he can control it for a few seconds, but any longer and it’s like getting caught in the worst R.A.B.I.T. of his life, like the sim test they did after they patched him up after Knifehead, to see if he might still be able to pilot with someone else. There’s the same feeling of being torn apart, burning from the inside out.

He tries to push the memories away, because maybe if he can just avoid chasing the R.A.B.I.T. for a few more seconds everything will even out, but there’s a sudden fierce slash of pain and he staggers. Another, and he’s on his knees. He drops the sword with a clatter and leans forward, hands on the ground, panting. He felt like he was being cut apart. Mako leans over him, hands on his shoulders, bent over him. “Raleigh! What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Excalibur is laying right in front of him, glinting, almost mockingly. _You’re not strong enough to use the sword like you’re supposed to. You’re the heir but you can’t even do your job._

“The sword is refusing to accept him.” Bedivere frowns. “He may be Uther’s descendant, but he cannot wield Excalibur.” Raleigh feels like sinking right through the cobblestones. Once again, he’s useless.

"Are you certain it never will?" The mustached man glances at them. 

"I am certain, George. The blade is the true test of the Pendragon heir. If he cannot use it, he cannot be king."

“He’s still training.” Mako looks up, and Raleigh can hear suppressed fear in her voice. He knows what Bill said would happen if these people decided he and Mako were spies. He wonders if they’d still kill them just for being useless.

“Training is no matter. Excalibur chooses its wielder. And it seems to clearly dislike him.”

“He pulled her out of a stone in the river! I think that’s pretty clearly a decision.” Raleigh wishes Mako didn’t have to keep standing up for him, because it looks like everyone’s getting more angry at her than him now, but he still doesn’t think he can say anything. His lungs feel like they’re burning from breathing smoke, and the pain is still radiating dully through his body.

“We cannot let them leave. They’ve seen too much,” one of Bedivere’s followers says. He draws a thin dagger. Bill nocks an arrow into his bow.

“Let us alone,” Mako snaps. “We’re not going to tell anyone where you are.”

Bedivere shakes his head, but gestures to Bill to lower his bow. “It is of no consequence if you say that now. You have no idea what Vortigern will do to get the truth out of you if he catches you. He’s broken men a lot stronger than you, men we would have trusted with our lives. And on these streets, with the Blacklegs, you’ll be in his dungeon before the day’s out.”

“I think we’ll be fine.” Mako sounds confident, but Raleigh can feel a genuine fear radiating through the ghost Drift. She helps him to his feet and they start walking to the door. Out of the corner of his eye Raleigh sees George dart between them and the opening, poised to strike.

Mako is faster. She sweeps George’s legs out from under him, slams an elbow into his chest as she rolls, and leaps to her feet, grabbing Bill’s bow and holding it like she’s fighting in the Kwoon. “Do you really want to try and stop us?” The others are staring at her. Raleigh guesses they didn’t expect a woman to be able to best their most skilled martial arts man.

Everyone but Raleigh and the Mage looks nervous when George scrambles to his feet, coughing. He glares at Mako, then attacks, hands a flurry of movement. Mako tosses the bow away; she’s always one for fair combat and if George is unarmed, so is she. He gets in one decent hit to her ribs before she’s got his arm and has somehow flipped around behind him. He tosses her over his head and she lands on feet and hands like a cat, then moves in close to land a stinging blow on George’s ribs before he grabs for her and she ducks out of his grip. She pauses for a second then launches into a kick. George ducks just in time. Raleigh’s pretty sure if she’d actually hit him the guy would be out cold. He grabs her leg as she’s about to complete the kick and tosses her on the ground. It looks like he might have her, but she kicks him back away with both feet and arches her back, flipping herself up into a standing position.

Raleigh wonders if this is what she looks like in a sparring match from outside the ring. Confident, powerful, completely unfazed by any near misses, and waiting for her opponent to underestimate her. He wonders if he looked as startled as George does. Probably more. He’s never really had the opportunity to appreciate just how elegant Mako’s fighting style is. He’s always been too busy trying to counter it. From here, he can see how fluid she is, and how quick her movements are. For as fast as George is, she’s as fast or more, darting in and out, giving hits just a few times more often than she takes them. She may have said she wasn’t dialing down her moves in their match, but Raleigh has the feeling she wasn’t at a hundred percent in there, because there’s no way he’s anywhere close to as good as George. She’s able to match her effort to her opponent. And she learns from whoever she fights. He remembers her using those unexpected almost instant strikes, like he did, at the beginning of their match, and now she seems to be memorizing and anticipating George’s moves. When he hesitates a bit longer than usual on a hand strike, she grabs his arm, pulls him in, flips him on the ground, and completes a complicated choke hold in seconds.

George slaps her arm in a gesture of surrender, and Mako stands, panting, brushing dirt off her tunic and shoving her sweaty hair out of her face. She shakes her shoulders, picks up Bill’s bow and hands it to the archer, who is gaping at her. She walks back over to Raleigh and stands next to him, arms folded defensively. “Anyone else care to try?”

Bedivere shrugs. “He many not be able to use Excalibur, but I’d rather have her on my side than against us. What do you say, lass? Would you rather take your chances with the Blacklegs, or with us? I’d like to see her handle the Viking problem; they’d never see her as a threat till she had their leader on the ground, begging for mercy.”

“If I stay, he stays.” Mako loops an arm through Raleigh’s. _I’m always the one slowing her down. First I messed up her first real Drift, now I’m dead weight to these people._

“Of course.” Bill claps Raleigh on the shoulder, and he flinches. “He may not be a king, but he’s got to be good for something, eh?” Mako finally, warily, moves back from the door, and Raleigh follows. _What have we just gotten ourselves into?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot of fun to write, because Mako got to be her amazing badass self, and I got to write about how awesome Raleigh thinks that is. Honestly I think that's one of my favorite things about them, because Raleigh is more than okay with getting shown up by her, and he really genuinely appreciates her skill.


	11. Into the darkness-Mako POV

“What are we doing again?” Mako leans over the edge of the roof, watching the contingent of riders approaching.

“They’re the vanguard of a slave caravan from a northern village. They’re taking the children they’ve captured to the river barges to send them to Camelot. No one really knows what happens to them, but rumor is they’re how Vortigern keeps his dragons in line.” Bill nocks three arrows in his bow simultaneously.

It’s been three days since the courtyard fight. In that time, Mako’s been given a sword of her own, swiped from a Blackleg by Blue, and they’ve traveled miles from Londinium for one of these vigilante raids.

Mako rests her fingers on the hilt of her sword. It’s not the best quality, definitely nowhere near Excalibur’s level, but having a weapon makes her feel a bit more like herself. She didn’t like wandering this place with no idea who was friend or foe and only her hand-to-hand skills, which she didn’t want to match against anybody with a weapon unless she had to, and Raleigh’s incompetent swordsmanship.

 _He thinks he’s the problem again._ Ever since Mako fought George and earned them a place on the team, Bill and the others have given Raleigh nothing but grief over being able to pull Excalibur out of a rock but clearly outshone by his traveling companion. She’s been trying to teach him how to better use the sword every night, but he isn’t putting much effort into the training. He’s decently good at basic attacks and blocks, but he lacks Mako’s natural grace in some of the more complicated maneuvers. Mako learned a long time ago, back in her Academy days, that people who were bigger and stronger than her were easier to beat, since they tended to rely on that size and strength to win. Being small was an advantage if Mako learned to use it right, and learn she did. 

The reason they’re joining any raid so soon as that this is the quickest route to the Blacklands, a magic-saturated area of the country the Mage suggested they visit. She thinks it might be the best place for Raleigh to learn to control the sword and its powers. Once this fight is over, Bill and the others will return to Londinium and Mako, Raleigh, the Mage, and Bedivere will continue north. Bedivere insisted on accompanying them. He seems to feel that Raleigh, even if he isn’t living up to everyone’s expectations, is still his responsibility to protect as heir to the throne.

The riders are directly below them, and Mako can see the wagon behind, full of children who might be anywhere from six to sixteen. The older ones are holding onto the younger children, and over the clatter of hooves Mako can hear crying. She feels sick at the thought of all these children being nothing more than a meal to placate the Kaiju. Even though she can’t see any of the children clearly, she imagines a girl in a blue coat, holding a broken red shoe, huddled in a ruined street, waiting for the monster to come find her.

A rustling noise above her jolts Mako out of the R.A.B.I.T. A cloud of ravens is circling over their heads, and she can see that the center of the swarm is the place where the Mage was standing in an alley. The birds all cry out as one, the soldiers glance up, and the flock descends with a flurry of wings and horrific croaking cries.

“Now.” Bill lets the three arrows fly, sliding down the roof as he does so to a more defended position. Mako follows, but instead of resting on the edge of the roof, she drops easily to the ground, meeting the fighter the men call “Wet Stick” and leaping into the milling crowd of confused soldiers and spooked horses.

It’s one thing to fight sea monsters from the ocean with silicon bones and blue acid blood. It’s something else using her blade on a human being. Mako reminds herself that these men are working for someone who throws children to monsters. Still, it’s hard to stomach plunging her blade into another human, or hearing the grunts and screams. She’s glad when it’s over, and the remaining soldiers are relieved of their horses, armor, and weapons and tied up outside a brothel. Bill chuckles.

“More fun leaving a bit of a joke than just a trail of bodies. We’d rather distance ourselves from the kind of wanton killing Vortigern is known for. Most people wish we’d slaughter ever one of the soldiers with no mercy, but then we’re no better than them. We kill only when we have to to save innocent lives.” Mako’s grateful for that.

She cleans and sheathes her sword, and goes to join Raleigh, who is untying the children in the wagon. She didn’t see him in the fight, and she’s grateful to whoever convinced him he should stay out of it. Raleigh’s not experienced or skilled enough for that.

He nods to Mako when she joins them. “I’m almost done, if you want to help those two at the front.” She climbs into the bed of the wagon. “Wait.” He rubs his thumb on her cheek. “There was blood. No sense scaring the kids any more than they already are.” He’s watching her the same way he did after she beat him in the compatibility trials; that mixture of awe and respect.

“Do you know the way back to your home?” Mako hands the reins to the oldest of the children, a brawny girl with burn-scarred hands and a messy braid of brown frizz.

“Course. Me father’s a blacksmith, we travel to Londinium for iron.” She climbs into the seat and clucks to the horses, and the wagon swings round and clatters back down the track in the direction it came.

“Do you think we did any good?” Mako asks Bedivere when he joins them, holding the reins of four of the captured horses. “Will they be safe? What if Vortigern is angry and sends his men to make an example of the village?”

“They’ll be long gone by then. Trust me, we’ve lived long enough with his rule to know what he’ll do. By morning, that village will be empty and those families will take refuge in the Blacklands. Vortigern won’t send his men that far. The ancient magic knows he is not true heir, and it will defy him at every turn. They would far rather risk the creatures there than the Blacklegs’ anger.”

Mako nods. “What exactly is this place?” She knows nothing besides the fact that it is a place full of magic and danger.

“Before Vortigern, when Uther was king, he defeated a great sorcerer called Mordred. His tower was destroyed, and the land around it laid waste. That is the Blacklands. Filled with monstrous creatures, old magic, and secrets.”

“And we’re riding right into it, hoping somehow it’s going to fix me.” Raleigh takes the reins of one of the horses. “Oh geez. Been a while since I rode.” He attempts to mount, and the horse, frustrated with his clumsy movements and still battle-shy, steps sideways. Raleigh tumbles very ungracefully into a puddle of mud. Mako can’t help but laugh at the look on his face.

“Not a word.” He puts up one grimy hand. “Or you’ll regret it when I’m king.”

She laughs and the Mage steps up, putting her hand on the horse’s nose to steady it long enough for Raleigh to mount. Mako calms her own horse before climbing on, and then nudges it into a walk alongside the others. Ahead of them is the vast grey mist that marks the edge of the Blacklands. They’re riding into one hell to escape another. She can hear a Kaiju roar in the distance. Not only are they hoping for a miracle, for the sword to accept Raleigh, but they need it soon.


	12. Inheritance-Raleigh POV

Raleigh is having a hard time remembering a day that’s gone much worse than this, at least since…since…he doesn’t think about _that_ anymore. But he does think about the Wall, and right now he’d rather be scrambling up girders and lugging around a welding rig, and trying not to get frostbite than riding into this hellish magic country with a sword that apparently hates him, an army behind them that hates him even more, and a horse that hates him more than all of that combined.

He's been thrown several times already, and Mako’s joked that he can’t even keep a nonhuman female from dumping him. He doesn’t think that’s funny, and he told her so. She just laughed and pulled her own horse into a well-collected rearing pose. She can’t possibly have any more riding experience than he has; she grew up during the worst of the War. But she’s got the same affinity for animals as the Mage. He’s beginning to think that woman might be right about Mako having actual magic. He wouldn’t be the least surprised.

As if the frustrating horse (he’s give anything to have Gipsy right now, he could at least be reasonably sure when he wanted her to move she would) wasn’t enough, it’s raining. It never stops raining in this freaking country. He was soaked through minutes after they started, and he’s getting colder by the minute. If this keeps up, he’s going to start having flashbacks and that never goes well.

If it wasn’t raining, he isn’t sure if he’d like this place any better. Sometimes he thinks it might be a good thing he can barely see five feet in front of him, because he hears entirely too much growling, like Alaskan wolves but at least three times the size if the sound is any indication, he’s seen at least one pair of glowing red eyes vanish into the black, sickly trees around the path, and once he thought he heard a Kaiju roar overhead. But if he can’t see them, hopefully they can’t see him either.

Raleigh never liked places like this, where there might be something hiding around a corner waiting to pounce. He never forgave Yance for convincing him to watch a horror movie with him once when they were in high school by promising it wasn’t that scary. Raleigh’d had nightmares for months. It doesn’t help that since then he’s had to fight actual freaking sea monsters. He’s not good with surprises. If Yance was here he’d be taking full advantage of Raleigh’s jumpiness. He’d probably have scared him already.

He starts talking almost without thinking, because he’s still trying to forget that night but he’ll never get his brother out of his head, not really.  “Damn, Yance woulda loved this.”

“Who is Yance?” The Mage asks, expertly guiding her horse around patch of fresh grass that Raleigh’s horse decides to stop and take several bites out of before he can get her moving again.

“Well, he was my brother. He’s dead. Died fighting dragons.”

There’s a funny look on Bedivere’s face. “Elder or younger?”

“Older. By three years, and he never let me forget it.”

Bedivere reins in his horse, turning the animal on the path to block Raleigh’s way. Raleigh’s horse shies, and Raleigh falls off, for what must be the fifteenth time. Bedivere continues as if nothing has happened. Everyone has learned it’s best to just ignore the fact that Raleigh is a terrible rider. “That’s what’s wrong. You’re confusing Excalibur.”

“What?”

“The heir is meant to be the eldest of the bloodline. Excalibur recognizes you as a Pendragon, but not as the heir to the throne. That’s why it’s fighting you so much, but still let you draw it from the stone.”

“Great. I’ve successfully stumped the magic sword.” _Fan-freaking-tastic. Yance was meant to be the one who had to deal with all this._ He would have been perfect for the throne. Brillaint strategist, good fighter, good with people and politics, and obsessed with medieval warfare and legends. These people needed Yance, and instead they’ve gotten Raleigh, a sub-par swordsman with a pretty thorough knowledge of the wrong era of history. He doesn’t think a World War II obsession is going to be much help here.

“Why did you not say something before? Had you told us you were not the eldest by birth, we would not have dismissed you so readily.”

“Well, sorry for not wanting to bring up a really painful part of my past to a bunch of _complete strangers_!” Raleigh has had it. He's soaked, he can’t feel his fingers or his toes, he’s covered in mud, and now everyone is treating him like he’s just a pawn to be used for their own needs, just a problem to fix so he can save them. He doesn’t even bother trying to get back on the horse. He walks a few steps off the path and sits down, wrapping his arms around his knees. Something howls again. _Go ahead, come and eat me. You’ll be doing me a favor._

Mako comes and sits next to him. She’s as drenched as he is, but she doesn’t seem as bothered. She doesn’t have bad memories associated with cold and wet. “Are you alright?” She rests her hand on his shoulder.

“I can’t do this. Mako, I’m not the person they need. I wish we’d never come here.”

“I do too, but I don’t see another way for us to get back. If we defeat this Vortigern, we can get to whatever version of the Breach this world has. Maybe we’ll fall back to our own.”

“Or to our deaths.”

“We took that risk once already.” She glances at the trees behind them. “We should get moving. The Mage says the creatures here can sense weakness.”

“Are you calling me weak?” The joke falls flat. _She’s not wrong._ Mako would have been perfect for this role. She’s a natural warrior, she inspires confidence, and she’s skilled and brave. He’s a consistent failure who couldn’t even save his own brother.

“That’s not true.” _She’s picking up the Drift again._ Mako rubs her hands briskly up and down his arms. It doesn’t help much, but he appreciates the intention. “You’re not a failure.”

“The only reason I’m still alive is you.”

“I could say the same. We’re co-pilots. We’re supposed to protect each other.”

“I can’t protect anyone. You’d be safer without me.”

“Raleigh. What happened to Yancy was not your fault. That Kaiju could just as easily have gone for your side of Gipsy. It was an accident.” Logically, he knows that, but he wants desperately to believe there was something he could fix, some way that if he went back, he could make things different. “You aren’t the reason he’s dead.” Something howls much closer. “But if you don’t get your ass up and get back on that horse, you are going to be the reason we are both dead, because I am not leaving you to get eaten by a monster wolf by yourself.”

He reluctantly gets to his feet, slogging back to the path, and the hateful horse, and Bedivere and the Mage’s disappointed looks. _She’s right. I even told her so. I live in the past. And I’m ruining everyone else’s lives because my own is a mess._ Raleigh never wanted to be the kind of person who is so wrapped in their own problems they push everyone else’s away because they just want to wallow in their own misery. But now that’s exactly who he is. These people, right here, right now, he can help them. It’s no different than climbing into a Jaeger to stop the Kaiju from destroying another city. Except that instead of a Jaeger, he’s got a temperamental magic sword and a horse who detests him. But he still has his co-pilot.

“What do I have to do to get this thing to like me?” He can see Bedivere’s face go from resigned to hopeful in that second, and he wonders what was wrong with him that he had to go and get so wrapped up in his own self-pity that he forgot the only reason he’s ever been in the Jaeger program was to help people. _I guess it’s hard to break five years’ habit of being alone with my own demons._

“Once it realizes you are now the eldest heir, Excalibur will accept your hand.”

“What does that mean? Am I supposed to sit down and have a talk with it?” Raleigh is fighting hard to keep the sarcasm away, but this is freaking ridiculous. _It was bad enough when it was just a magic sword. Now apparently it’s sentient too._

“You have seen the memories it holds when you touch it, have you not? It searches your memories as it imparts its own. You need to let it see that you are worthy of the throne.”

“So in other words, I have to relive Yance’s death again so the sword realizes I’m now the eldest in my family.” _Wonderful._ But it’s not like he didn’t do the same thing once, for the same reasons. He got back in a Drift so he could co-pilot with Mako, so they could go save the world. Now he’d just Drifting with…a glowing sword.

“Well, let’s get this over with.”

“Not here.” The Mage glares at him. “Unleashing magic unprotected in these lands will draw every one of these fell creatures down on us. They can sense it in the air. We have waited too long already.”

“Where are we going then?” Mako sounds a bit frustrated too.

“At the Mages’ Tower, I will be able to set up wards. Only there is magic strong enough for me to make wards that will guard you from Vortigern’s knowledge. If he knows you not only took the sword but have access to its powers, he will kill you.”

 _That’s reassuring._ Raleigh starts getting onto his horse again. “Stand still, idiot.” Mako comes around to the horse’s nose and calms her long enough for Raleigh to get on. “Thank you.” She squeezes his hand before getting on her own horse. _I can do this, right?_


	13. Darklands-Mako POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm back...sorta. College has been taking an incredible chunk out of my life and I will be so glad to be done. Only a few more weeks...

Mako has to admit she’s a bit disappointed by the Mage’s Tower. She was hoping for something towering and elegant, or at least fortified enough to maybe protect them a bit from kaiju or an army. The tower is just a pile of scorched stone rubble, with a ring of stones that sort of looks like it might have been a foundation and is only a little higher than Mako’s horse’s head.

The Mage dismounts and leads her horse inside. Mako wonders if it’s safe to follow her. Maybe only people who possess some kind of magic can go inside. She doesn’t have enough faith in the Mage’s assessment of her own abilities to test it. _There’s no way I have anything magical in me._ She’s not from this world, not like Raleigh.

She wonders if everyone else feels the same way, because even Bedivere is still outside. They wait, holding the horses and trying to stand as much out of the storm as they can, until the Mage reappears, a raven perching on her shoulder.

“What are you still standing there for?” she motions them in. “My wards can’t extend beyond this circle.” Mako tugs her horses reins, and although the mare skitters sideways and rolls her eyes when she has to walk under the arch, she doesn’t bolt. Raleigh’s horse plants its feet and refuses to budge, then shakes its head free of his death grip on the reins, and he falls on his back. Mako can’t help laughing. _He’s hopeless with that animal._ He gets up, cursing under his breath and giving her the middle finger when she can’t stop laughing long enough to help.

“Mako, please.” He’s glaring at the horse, who looks about ready to kick him rather than go inside. She finally gets her chuckling under control and takes the horse by the bridle, covering her eyes with her cloak to get the spooked animal to follow her. Raleigh slogs after them, trying very unsuccessfully to brush some of the muck off his jacket. They’re all grimy after today’s ride, but Raleigh looks like…well, like he was tossed in a few too many mud puddles. Which is actually what happened. She can’t really help grinning at the insulted look he gives his coat, then the temperamental horse. There are too few things to laugh about here. Just like back at the Shatterdome, when she and Chuck played pranks on older rangers and _Sensei_ got upset, but didn’t make them stop because even the rangers appreciated having something on their minds besides worrying about kaiju.

The walls protect them a bit from the wind and rain, but not the biting, bone-deep cold that comes with the fog rolling in. Mako and the Mage tie the horses against a wall where there’s a patch of coarse greyish grass, then the Mage starts drawing in the ground, a swirling knot of interconnecting lines and strange symbols. Mako doesn’t have any idea what she’s doing now, but better to stay on the safe side and outside that maze of lines. Bedivere is walking the top of the walls, watching for anything coming their way. For a moment she blinks and her throat tightens, because _Sensei_ used to stand just like that outside the hangar bays when a Jaeger went off to sea. But he’s not here now. She joins Raleigh, who’s huddling as close to the wall as he can get without actually touching the cold stone, wringing trickles of muddy water out of his jacket.

She can feel Raleigh’s memories getting stronger through the Ghost Drift. She knows cold weather reminds him of the night Knifehead destroyed Gipsy and killed his brother. He shivers, and she puts her arm around him, taking the damp coat out of his hands and draping it around his shoulders. It’s still soggy but it might help block the wind.

They need a fire because as soon as night falls, the cold is only going to get worse. The sun is setting and Mako can feel the chill in the air. Raleigh sneezes and clumsily wipes the back of his hand across his face, which only leaves more mud caking on. _Just our luck if on top of everything he’s getting sick._ They could really use a fire.

“Don’t go anywhere, I’m going to try to get things for a fire.” Mako stands up, and Raleigh cringes at the loss of her warmth and presence. She hates leaving him alone but she has to, for now.

“Where do you think I’m goin’?” he mutters, pulling his knees to his chest. She can’t think of a good comeback so she shrugs and just walks off, searching inside the ring of stones for anything she can build a fire with. There are several trees growing inside, but most of them are still alive…or at least she thinks they are. The only leaves they have are shriveled and grey, but when she breaks off branches the wood oozes a blackish sap. She doesn’t really want to breathe in the smoke from that.

More promising is the remains of a door half-hidden under some rubble. The wood is old and rotting, but it seems safer to burn that those freakish trees. Mako gathers a small armful and some of the grey grass that seems dryer than another patch and sits down next to Raleigh again.

“Can I borrow Excalibur?” She asks, selecting a stone from a heap next to her.

“Don’t put a nick in her now, alright?”

“Ha. Very funny.” Mako strikes the sword against the rock a few times to test it, and a shower of sparks scatter across the ground. She arranges the wood and grass and holds sword and stone above the heap. It’s a lot more awkward than using a standard flint-and-steel like she was taught in the Acadmey, but it’s the same concept. She clumsily smacks the blade on the rock and watches the sparks scatter.

The sparks just hiss out on the wet wood. It’s the worst weather to try and start a fire in. The wind is coming from a new direction now and blowing rain directly on her face and the pile of kindling. She raises the sword and strikes it down again. Nothing.

The rain and wind are picking up and so is the Ghost Drift. She blinks, because for a second stone walls were a hangar bay door and she wasn’t Mako Mori, she was Yancy Becket, on the way to a fifth notch on the belt. “Raleigh?” He’s huddled up more than ever, shaking violently, eyes closed. “Raleigh, come on, stay with me. Don’t chase the R.A.B.I.T.” He blinks up at her too slowly, eyes unfocused.

“Ya…Mako?”

“Raleigh, it’s me. You know where we are, right?” She doesn’t need to deal with a Drift nightmare on top of all this. But he’s so cold, and if she doesn’t get him warm now she’s just going to have to watch this one run its course. She bends down in front of him, taking his icy hands in her only slightly warmer ones, and rubbing briskly. He seems to be a little more alert as she continues, but she doesn’t like how pale he is, or the bluish tinge in his fingers and lips.

They need that fire. She goes back to the sword, wishing that blue glow it gets when Raleigh touches it somehow translated into warmth. She smacks it on the rock again with no better results, the throws both to the ground.

“Oh, come on!” she clenches her fists and a bubbling warmth of anger, frustration, and her own inability to help her own co-pilot fight off his demons surges through her chest. She flinches and relaxes her hands, but then Raleigh whispers, broken and shaky, “Y-yan-Yancy?” Fire blazes through Mako’s veins. It feels like charging one of the plasma cannons, but in her own body instead of Gipsy’s arm. A whirl of sparks and flame leaps from her fingers and Mako screams.


	14. Girl on fire-Mako POV

Mako feels as out of control of herself as when she was trapped in the R.A.B.I.T. a few days ago, when she almost set off Gipsy’s plasma cannon. The fire in her hands is only growing, and she knows, somehow instinctively, that she needs to calm down, to breathe, to relax, but she can’t because the ground in front of her is burning, what was her fire kindling is a heap of ash, and the flames are leaping higher and higher. _What if someone can see it? What if it draws in something from those forests?_

She gasps when it feels like her mind has been ripped from her body. Not a Drift, where she’s present in two people at the same time. This is a disconnection. She’s not even in her own body. She watches from above herself while the Mage draws strange runes on her arms and the fire flickers out. The Mage makes a last stroke of her soot-covered finger and Mako feels herself return to her body in a rush.

“Th-thank you.” The Mage is patting out a few small scorched places on her cloak.

“I’ve locked away your power for now. Don’t wash those marks away until we are ready to begin training.” The Mage sounds ridiculously calm for having come so close to being set on fire. Mako doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if the woman hadn’t been there. The fire destroyed everything around her, and it’s stopped just inches from Raleigh. His sleeve is singed, and he looks shaken.

“What happened?” He’s watching her with the same kind of impressed respect as when she beat him in the Kwoon. She guesses it’s at least good that he doesn’t seem afraid of her.

“This place is dangerous for a Mage. Magic is stronger here.” The Mage rolls Mako’s wrist over and runs her fingers along the visible blue vein. Mako feels something inside her respond to the tickle of magic. The same heat, but this time suppressed, contained. She can feel it struggling to break free, roiling under her skin.

“So you do have magic.” Raleigh stands up and takes her other hand. The heat floods from under the Mage’s fingers to his cold ones, and he jumps slightly, then leans a bit closer to her. She tries to focus on the heat flooding through her, to channel it into him. The fire reacts like a wild thing, fighting her, but now that she knows it is there, knows it is part of her, she can harness it. She has more practice than most people in controlling thoughts and emotions, even if she did let the R.A.B.I.T. take over. The Mage seems a bit surprised that Mako has this much control already. Mako doesn’t blame her, that first display of her powers was anything but disciplined.

She stops when she feels Raleigh’s shaking subside. “Can I do that without you touching me?” She’d like to be able to keep them both warm tonight seeing as a fire is pretty clearly not an option anymore. The Mage nods.

“The runes only stop you from setting fire to things, not channeling the heat. But be careful. If you cannot control it, you will burn up from the inside out.” _That’s reassuring._ Mako wonders if this is how Raleigh’s been feeling this whole time. Trapped by a power he didn’t want, that he can barely control.

“Mako, it’s okay. It’s going to be fine. If anyone can learn to control this, you can.” Raleigh twists his fingers into her hands. She holds tight, grateful he’s here. _I don’t deserve someone like him being my friend._ He’s never run away from the monsters inside her. Not the Kaiju in her memories, and not the fire inside her now. He believes in her and he’s not afraid of what she can do. He doesn’t want her to sit down and be silent. He wants her to use her strengths.

“You can begin your training tomorrow, once I have repaired the inner wards. There are runes in the ground that must be exposed and rewritten, so you can train inside them without doing any damage to anyone else.” The Mage looks pointedly at Raleigh’s smoking sleeve.

Mako nods and sits down next to Raleigh, focusing on drawing up just enough warmth to keep them from shivering. She’d prefer not to spontaneously combust. Raleigh settles against her.

“Well, now we’re both a problem,” she whispers. “If I don’t learn to control this, I’m either going to kill someone, or try to contain it and kill myself.”

“Mako. It will be okay. We’re both going to be okay. We’ll figure this out. We can do it. We piloted a Jaeger together. I can make a magic sword like me, and you can learn how not to burn down everything you touch.” She puts an arm around him and rests her head on his shoulder. Now that she knows it’s there, she can feel the fire whispering through her body. It was terrifying when she lost control, but now it’s almost a comforting presence. _It means I belong in this world as much as Raleigh does. I’m not an outsider anymore._ That will be small comfort if she reveals her power and is burned at the stake as a witch… _wait, can fire kill me if I can control it?_ She can’t help the somewhat hysterical laughter that breaks out.

“What?” Raleigh’s looking at her oddly, but she can’t help it because this is the funniest thing she’s thought of all day. This is actually funnier than Raleigh’s horse hating him. _Wouldn’t that just irk them all? Try to kill me for my magic but my magic saves my life?_

“Just…just thinking about what’s going to happen when we go back,” Mako chokes out when she can speak again.

“Do you think we can?” He glances at her. “We were lucky to survive once.”

“I’d like nothing better than to say, ‘screw this war and whatever destiny we’re supposed to have’ and go somewhere no one cares who we are. But these people are going to die if we don’t stop Vortigern. And if those Kaiju get out of his control, nowhere in this world will be safe.” She stops, noticing Raleigh looks confused.

“Of course we’re going to stop him. But Mako, I don’t know if we can go back through the breach.” _Oh. He thought I was talking about going back to Earth. I thought I was talking about going back to Camelot._ She can see where that happened. _Honestly, pretty sure the reaction to me back home would be about the same as here. Some things never change._

“I don’t know either. I don’t know why we’re here, and whether we’d go back where we came from if we went through again, or if we’d end up somewhere else, or on that dead planet. Or if the breach would kill us.”

“Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. Together.” Raleigh twists a strand of her damp blue hair. She leans back and stares up at the rainy sky. _Do I even want to go back?_


	15. Control-Raleigh POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to post! I had to do some mass revision to my first plot outline because I realized I'd started to deviate a lot, and then my college's finals week crept up on me. Fortunately I am now done with academia forever (unless I decide to go for my masters') and I have much more free time to write things!

The morning dawns grey and foggy. Raleigh is shivering faintly, arms tucked close around himself for warmth. When Mako finally fell asleep, she stopped giving off that comforting heat, and he didn’t have the heart to wake her. So he’s been laying here the better part of three or four hours watching her sleep. _Not like I’d get any more sleep if I was warm._ Now, in addition to dreaming of Knifehead, he’s got nightmares about losing Mako in the Breach, or about that fiery hell the sword showed him. _As if my mind wasn’t fucked up enough._

When Mako nudges him, starting to stand up and yawn herself, he groans.

“Do we have to get up?”

“Thought you were a morning person.” She elbows him gently.

“I was until we started waking up in a freaking Dungeons and Dragons world. I keep hoping I’ve been dreaming all this and we’re gonna wake up in medical with maybe one hell of a Drift hangover but no magic swords or armies trying to kill us.”

Mako sighs and leans back. “Me too. But so far, no luck.”

They’ve been here too long for this to be fake. Raleigh’s never heard of Drift hallucinations lasting this long, or being this vivid. But he doesn’t really want to let go of that hope, even if it’s getting fainter and fainter. _I don’t belong here. I’m just causing more problems than I’m solving._

He knows better than to say that out loud now though. Mako will just try to reassure him and because he can’t bear to disappoint her earnest, trusting face, he’s going to tell her he believes her, even when he’s certain they’d all be better off if she was alone here and he never came back from that burning world they fell into. She’d be free to live in safety with the Mage if he wasn’t here. But now she feels like she’s got to help him, and he’s pretty sure he’s going to get them both killed. He just wants to bury the sword as deep as he can and pretend to be normal. But that would be like building a useless wall for five years while watching Jaegers and pilots who used to be his friends keep falling. He’s never, ever, been able to sit anything out without feeling guilty. Somehow, his fate keeps finding ways to make sure he’s necessary. He wishes it would leave him alone. _Wasn’t almost dying to stop the Kaiju good enough? Why do I also have to be heir to a throne that’s been stolen by a madman?_

He and Mako both can’t stomach any of the food the Mage lays out. That might be partly because none of it looks safe, but Raleigh is also pretty sure he’d throw up from nerves before he ever had a chance to get food poisoning. Mako pokes a piece of black bread with her finger, then shakes her head. She glances at the smudged charcoal runes on her arm.

“Should we begin?” The Mage stands, lifting her arm so the raven perched on her shoulder flies off. It comes to rest on the edge of the wall, and Bedivere, seeing it, climbs down. Clearly, he has no qualms about the food; he’s eaten his own portion and Raleigh’s by the time the Mage finishes making marks in her concentric circles in the courtyard.

“Come here.” The Mage wipes the charcoaled runes off Mako’s arms with the sleeve of her cloak, and almost immediately Mako’s hands begin to glow. She stares at them, and he can sense the faint panic through the Ghost Drift. _Is this going to happen every time I move?_

“Concentrate on where the fire is coming from. Feel it from your fingers backward. Once you find its source, focus on that.”

“Doesn’t it come from my heart, if it’s in my veins?” Mako is frowning, the look of concentration on her face eerily similar to Marshal Pentecost’s. It’s strange to see his expression on Mako’s face.

“Everyone’s magic comes from different places.” The Mage brushes her own palm gently, tracing a scar there, a mark like a burn. “It comes from our love, our pain, our scars. No one’s magic is the same as anyone else’s.”

Mako stands quietly, eyes closed, and Raleigh watches the fire glow move up her arm until it disappears under her sleeve. When she opens her eyes, the fire is there. “It’s in my head. In my memories.” She doesn’t need to say more. He can already see Onibaba. Fire in the streets and hot, choking ash swirling down.

“Then it will be strong but hard to control. The past can be a very painful place, and scars on the mind are far deeper than scars on the body.” The Mage rests her hands on Mako’s shoulders. “But I have faith in your strength.”

“So do I.” Raleigh knows it’s risky but he steps into the circle and puts a hand on Mako’s arm as well. She’s warm, warmer than usual, and he can feel the fire pulsing through her. “You already beat that memory once. You can control it now. And I promise, I’m here if you need me.” He can at least do this. Sharing memories and getting through the bad ones is something he has plenty of experience in.

“Thank you.” Mako acknowledges him with a slight nod. She’s staring at her hands, and suddenly the palms fill with fire. Not leaping flames, just a low smoldering glow like a bowl full of embers. She clenches her fingers and then releases them, and now a flame is jumping a few inches above her skin, flickering softly.

Mako rolls the fire in her palms. She looks like she’s part of those anime shows he used to watch when he woke up in the middle of the night with dreams of Knifehead and couldn’t sleep. She seems confident in her power already, although maybe it’s just knowing she’s in the Mage’s wards and nothing bad will happen if she looses control. The fire slowly forms a cohesive ball. Mako tosses it from one hand to the other.

“Will I be able to do this when we leave?”

“If you can learn to control it, yes. Before Mordred, every mage came here to learn to harness and focus their magic.” The Mage steps back. “Now it’s time for you to see what you can do.” She bodily pulls Raleigh out of the circle. “Let her test this. It’s not wise to be near a new mage when they learn control.”

She’s right, and Raleigh spends the next two hours watching Mako progressively improve her control of the fire until she can toss balls of it at the edges of the circle, where they fizzle out when they reach the edge of the wards. When she stops, sweaty and panting but smiling, Raleigh’s waiting for her when she steps out.

“That was amazing.” She’s still holding a small lick of flame. “I think I like it.”

“Me too.”  He flicks a finger quickly through the flame, like he used to do with campfires when Yance dared him to.

“I felt that.” Mako frowns. “Do that again.”

He does, and the fire isn’t painful, just warm. And Mako is staring at it.

“I can feel your finger in it. Like the fire’s part of me.”

“It is,” the Mage says softly, smiling like Mako is her child who just did something amazing. “And now it always will be.” Just as quickly, she becomes brisk and efficient again. “Now it’s your turn to learn your own magic.” She removes Excalibur from her scabbard and places her in Raleigh’s hands. The blade starts to glow, just a little.

“Well, I guess if I want you to stop trying to knock me out whenever we meet, I need to prove I’m next in line for the kingdom.” Raleigh’s glaring at the blade like it’s her fault. _It’s just so typical that even magic on some other world won’t let me leave Knifehead in the past._ He sort of hates his life. But that seems fair when so far, everything has gone pretty wrong. _Well, what do I have to lose?_ He steps into the circle and it’s like stepping into hell.


	16. Nightmare World-Raleigh POV

“Raleigh, listen to me!” He’s being torn apart from the inside out. He’s watching Yance get ripped away from him and just like every other time he can’t do anything.

Rain whips through the torn conn-pod and and stings his face. It shouldn’t, not through the Drivesuit, and for a moment he’s aware of where he is, and that he’s standing in a shattered castle in a growing storm, holding a magic sword. But then Excalibur’s runes flare blue and he’s back in the dream, feeling Yancy dying in the storm. _Cold, pain, blood, fear. And nothing._ He wants to scream but his throat feels like someone poured acid down it. _Yancy. Yancy! Come back, please, no, no no no. This can’t be happening. This isn’t real. No no no no no._

He shudders and blinks, trying to escape the memory, but the sword flashes brighter and he’s trapped, watching Knifehead tear into Gipsy’s battered body. _Isn’t this enough for you to accept me, you fucking useless piece of metal? Haven’t I just proved I’m the oldest now?_

Knifehead’s horn tears into his side and this time he does scream because he can feel the sharp edge tearing him apart. He collapses on his knees in the ocean, only now it’s not the ocean. It’s the center of a burning hellscape. Red flames are leaping into the night sky, and the storm and the Kaiju are gone. Something that looks like the Ghost Rider from Yance’s comic books is bearing down on him, a monster with a flaming head and a raised scythe.

Raleigh feels the bite of the weapon in his shoulder and screams again. He turns and through tear and smoke-blurred eyes he sees a woman and a young boy. He tries to shout at them to run but his voice bubbles uselessly in blood-filled, ruined lungs. _I’m going to die. And so are they._ He swings Excalibur at the demon headed thing but the scythe brushes it uselessly away. Then the demon thing leans in and grabs his chin, forcing Raleigh to look at him.

“I’m going to kill you. Slowly. Painfully. But not before I show you how they die, brother, for everything you’ve taken from me I will take away from you.” Raleigh doesn’t know quite why, but he snatches the sword back. And then he falls forward onto it, impaling the blade into his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short chapter, had a lot of job preparation to do this week. Should be able to write more consistent now though! :)


	17. Someone to lean on-Mako POV

Mako sees it all happening in slow motion. Raleigh is falling, and if she doesn’t do something he’s going to fall straight onto Excalibur and kill himself. She gathers a handful of fire and throws it straight through the wards, and the blast knocks Excalibur out of the way. Raleigh collapses onto the ground, but he’s absolutely still, as if he’s dead.

“Raleigh!” Mako rolls him over, hoping he hasn’t breathed in any of the murky water he just face-planted into when he just dropped like a stone. “Wake up!”

He’s pale, blood in the corner of his mouth that she hopes is only from a bitten tongue or lip. He was screaming in pain, and she’s glad the wards were there to block the sound because if she could have heard him in that much agony she knows she would have gone in and wrenched Excalibur out of his hands herself long before he fell.

“You’re squeezing me too tight.” He coughs and spits out mud. “Bleah.”

“Raleigh.” She’s about to cry. He hugs her, and she can feel him shaking. He’s not cold; she can feel sweat running down his cheek against hers. But he’s gasping for breath and he feels so tense and brittle she thinks he might snap in her hands.

He’s going to get himself killed because he can’t stop trying to be everyone’s hero. Mako can’t decide if Raleigh’s insanely self-sacrificial mentality makes her like him or want to bash him over the head with a wrench. He’s the kind of person who will give the shirt off his back to anyone who needs it, no matter how little he has to call his own, and she admires him for being so selfless, but he is going to die here if he keeps trying to be the king they want him to become. And Mako isn’t selfless enough to lose him.

She’s already sacrificed so much. Two families. Two fathers. Her whole life after Onibaba. Shouldn’t she be allowed to hold onto Raleigh, the one thing she has left that the kaiju haven’t ruined? She helps him stand, and cringes when he groans softly at the movement.

“Are you hurt?”

“I-I don’t know.” Even his voice is shaking. “It felt…I saw…” He gasps and sinks back to the ground. “It felt like he was actually fighting me.” She wants to ask who but at the moment Raleigh needs help. He’s shaking and struggling to breathe. If Mako didn’t know better she’d say he had a punctured lung.

“What hurts?”

“Um…Everything?” He makes an attempt at a smile, but she can see the pain behind it. “I don’t know, my shoulder? My back? It feels like I’ve been stabbed in the chest.”

“You almost were. You almost fell onto Excalibur.” Now she can see where the sword’s tip tore through the front of his shirt. The gash it left is slowly staining his chest crimson.

“What…how…” She begins fumbling with his shirt, trying to see the damage.

“I threw a fireball at it.”

“She’s gonna hate you now. Also, I might if you scorched my eyebrows off.” She can’t help but smirk.

“I’d be okay if she hates me, as long as you’re still alive.” The gash isn’t deep, and Mako’s about to ask the Mage if by chance she carries any magic salve for wounds. Then she sees the black marks. Raleigh’s chest is a spiderweb of dark lines, radiating out from a deep black mark in his shoulder. The marks aren’t cuts, but they’re not really burns or bruises either. More like scarring from a Drivesuit almost.

“What is this?!” Mako can’t help the half-horrified scream. The Mage rushes over and kneels beside them.

“Shadow marks. He entered a place between our world and the past, and he was part of it for that time. What he experienced did not kill him, but it left its marks.”

“Will he be okay?” Raleigh doesn’t need more chronic injuries to bother him.

“He spent little time there. He should heal in a few days. It will help if you can cover the marks with fireroot leaves. They grow here, near the base of the tower. They’re good for healing magic gone wrong.”

“Can you show me?” The Mage takes her hand. They’re kneeling by the wall, picking a few wilted reddish leaves from the crevices of a pile of rubble, when the Mage stops and grips both of Mako’s hands.

“Mako, you must learn to let him go. What you did, that was dangerous.”

“Was I supposed to let him die?” Mako crushes the leaves in her grip.

“Excalibur would not have killed him.” The Mage looks away. “Even if it had, you must not interfere in his destiny. He is the born king, and he must follow his path as you must follow yours.”

“He’s my co-pilot.” Mako realizes that will mean nothing as soon as the words are out of her mouth. “We fought together.”

“That will not stop the bonds of destiny. You will have to make a choice. You can save him, or you can let him go, and let him save us all. You used your magic in a way that should never be done. Your fear was so strong you broke the wards and endangered us all. You cannot risk everyone’s life for his. He would not ask that from you.” Mako knows the Mage is right. But she cannot accept it.

“I’ll save him and we’ll save Camelot together.” She stands up. “He’s cheated death twice and I refuse to lose him now.” The Mage looks after her with a sad expression, but makes no move to stop her.

When she gets back, Raleigh has taken off his muddy, torn shirt, and she can see that the dark scarring covers his back as well. It’s strange to see the jagged black marks, like branching trees, overlaying the symmetrical white and brown lines from the Drivesuit scars. Raleigh has endured so much already, how can the Mage possibly say Mako should abandon him to more pain? She begins laying the leaves she gathered over the black streaks, working as gently as she can. Even so, she hears Raleigh make a barely concealed hiss of pain when she presses a bit too hard on the dark center of one of the marks.

She studiously ignores the Mage, who has come up and is standing beside them, probably to make sure Mako doesn’t screw this up. When the woman surprisingly says nothing critical, Mako glances up. The Mage is staring at the scars on Raleigh’s shoulders. “What curse left these marks?”

“Not a curse. A battle.” Mako doesn’t want Raleigh to have to go back over more bad memories. “It’s from our…armor.” She rolls up her right sleeve to show the faint ones she has from Gipsy losing her arm. “We were in battle with a dragon, and when the armor is damaged it marks us.”

“You were together in battle, as one,” The Mage mumbles. She runs a finger along one of the lines on Raleigh’s arm, and Mako resists the urge to slap her hand away. _Don’t touch him like that. He’s mine._ She’s not sure when she got so possessive.

“We need each other. We’re stronger together than we could ever be apart.” Mako takes Raleigh’s good hand, twining their fingers together, and watches a glimmer of understanding flash into the Mage’s eyes.

“You are soulbonded then.”

“If that’s what you call it here.” Mako breathes an internal sigh of relief. Maybe this will mean the Mage will stop trying to tear her and Raleigh apart. _Maybe now you’ll see; we don’t have separate destinies anymore. Our destinies are always one and the same._


	18. Plans-Raleigh POV

Raleigh’s surprised at how dark it got while he was under the sword’s spell. It’s nearly nightfall already, and Bedivere, once he was sure Raleigh would be fine, has moved off and is starting to rebuild a fire, since that awful rain is coming back.

“What happened in there?” Mako seems shaken, and Raleigh can’t blame her. According to her he almost killed himself. Accidentally, but still. He’s just glad she pulled him out of that dream.

“I saw someone…a man in a dark robe. He said something about my family, and that he was going to take from me what I took from him. He said he was my brother.”

“You must have seen the battle between Uther and Vortigern,” The Mage says. “Uther was killed with his own sword; if what you were doing was the same then he must have killed himself. And his wife was murdered and the child thrown into the Dragon Gate.”

“The Breach,” Mako whispers.

“He’s not just a wizard. He’s some kind of demon thing with a flaming head.” Raleigh shudders.

“He made dark dealings to gain his strength,” the Mage says slowly. “Sacrificed his wife and sold his own soul for power. And he received it.”

“So how do we stop him?” Mako asks.

“Excalibur’s magic is stronger than even Vortigern’s. The sword was forged with the magic of light and purity. It will stand against fire and darkness and death.”

“Yeah, but the real question is how we’re ever gonna get close enough to use it.” Excalibur might be okay with Raleigh now, even though he really doesn’t want to touch her and try to find out, but he’s still pretty sure that near-death experience didn’t make him the greatest swordsman ever. And Vortigern has a _lot_ of soldiers. They have a small group of people who raid wagon convoys for a living. Vortigern has all the resources of the country. They’re scavengers using what they can find or steal. The closest thing they have to armor is the damaged Drivesuits stashed away by the river.

“We’ll need allies.” Mako sounds sure of herself. “When the Kaiju…dragons…attacked our world, even countries that had been on the brink of war with each other started working together to defend the world from something they all feared more than each other. This country has barons and lords of smaller estates, right?” The Mage nods. “If we can convince them that it is in their best interests to put aside land disputes and anything keeping them apart, and that Vortigern is their biggest enemy, maybe we can get our own army.”

“Some of them have allied with Vortigern already,” Bedivere cautions.

“We’ll avoid them. But I’m sure most live in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing and having him unleash his dragons on them to lay waste to their lands.”

Raleigh thinks this is a good idea. The only bad part of this is that as the born king, everyone is going to expect him to be the one who goes and convinces the barons that they need to fight together. But he didn’t even think of this plan, and Mako is saying all the good stuff. He’s sure if he tries to repeat all that it’s just going to sound cheesy, not inspirational.

“I’ve never been good at diplomacy.” He tries not to sound like he’s giving up, but really anyone else would be better at this. Raleigh is far better at solving problems with his fists than his words. _Just ask Chuck._

“Leave it to me.” Mako stands and brushes off her hands. “I’ll talk them around, and if they won’t listen to a woman then I’ll just have to show them I’m not to be taken lightly.” A small lick of flame dances in her hand.

“Back to civilization tomorrow, then?” Raleigh asks. He really hopes the answer is yes. He doesn’t want to spend another night here in these miserable wastelands, in the rain and cold. And after what he saw in that dream, he doesn’t think he’ll be sleeping much. _Thanks for making my insomnia even worse, Excalibur._

“We will return. We will seek out the Barons who have not yet turned allegiance to Vortigern and meet with them. And perhaps we will have a chance of defeating him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for another short one! I just accepted a job and it's keeping me on my toes.


	19. Alliances-Raleigh POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I messed with the timeline a little because I’ve modified the plot some. Events will still happen, but they’ll be a bit out of order for the sake of continuity with my timeline.

Raleigh thought he would be glad to be out of the Blacklands. But coming back into Londinium, sneaking through the city gates in the middle of the night, with the guard bound and gagged before he even knew Mako was behind him, makes Raleigh tense and skittish. He doesn’t like feeling watched like this. One wrong move, one false ally, and they’re all going to land in Vortigern’s dungeon. _And if he gets his hands on Excalibur, who knows what could happen?_

They make it back to the brothel safely, but Raleigh thinks it was almost too easy. And when they get close enough to see the door hanging off its hinges, latch shattered and furniture strewn cazily inside, he knows why no one was searching the town for them.

“My god.” Raleigh reins in his horse and slides off. “What happened?”

“Someone turned us in.” Bedivere’s voice is a harsh snarl.

“Shhh.” Mako hisses. “I hear something.” Raleigh sees a faint glow rising under her skin. “They might still be here.” Raleigh draws Excalibur, still mentally bracing for the sword to reject him. When she doesn’t, it actually feels wrong somehow. He got used to her tempermental nature.

There’s a slight creaking noise, and all of them notice at the same time. Above them, from the half-shattered balcony, an archer is aiming down at them.

“Show yourself, and fight like soldiers, not skulking cowards, you damn Blacklegs!” Bedivere roars.

“It’s me you idiot!” Someone yells from above them, and then Raleigh recognizes the man who’d met them the first day, Goosefat Bill. The archer climbs down from the balcony awkwardly, and Raleigh can see a stained bandage wrapped around his shoulder.

“What happened here?” Bedivere mutters, once they’re all standing inside what’s left of the brothel. Bill looks almost as on edge as Raleigh feels. His hair is frazzled, his fingers twitch like he’s still firing his bow, and he keeps glancing at the street.

“Blackleg raid. Someone found out we were using this place for more than its intended purposes.” Bill frowns. “They took the girls, and they got Rubio and Blue. They were here hiding out after Blue drew some stuff on the wrong alley.”

“Well that’s fantastic,” Raleigh mumbles. He barely even knew these people but he feels responsible for them in a weird way. And now he feels like he’s failing them.

“Our best chance of helping them is to rally the barons and stand against Vortigern,” Mako, always there with the logic and practicality, is chiming in now.

“And leave innocent people to be tortured and interrogated? You know he won’t be content to let them rot in the dungeons alone,” Bedivere snaps. “He’ll sqeeze every shred of information out of them that he can get. Then kill them slowly and painfully.”

Raleigh knows Mako knew that already. But she’s always the one to see the bigger picture. She has lived her whole life fighting a war. To her, the term “acceptable losses” doesn’t leave a bad taste in her mouth. She knows that to win a war, sacrifices have to be made. Raleigh knows that too. It doesn’t make him feel any better about this, but if they try to help, chances are good they’ll be doing exactly what Vortigern expects them to. He’s obviously got more in mind than punishing some petty vandalism. He knows these people are connected to the returning king, and he wants Raleigh to come for them so he can kill him.

“She’s right,” Raleigh says quietly. “Vortigern is setting us up. He wants us to try a rescue, or for me to turn myself in in exchange for them. That’s his play. But we can beat him if we do what he doesn’t expect.”

Slowly Bill nods. Bedivere looks disappointed, but he finally bows to the will of his king. _And God does it feel weird thinking that._

Over the next few days, Bill, Bedivere, George, and the remaining members of the little rebel band spread out across the region, riding by night, taking cover from Kaiju and Blacklegs by day. Raleigh and Mako travel together, because if he can’t be convincing enough with the display of his sword’s magic, she can bring out her words and her fire and command instant respect. Raleigh never gets tired of watching barons treat her like she must be up for the taking only to be flung on their backs and threatened with decapitation (she’s far better with her own non-magic sword than Raleigh will ever hope to be with Excalibur).

When they gather in the forest in a week, at a secret encampment Bill has used for years, they’re almost three thousand strong. A few barons rejected their offers, and more were loyal to Vortigern and were never even met with, but as of now there are eight landed barons and a ninth who was dispossessed by Vortigern but his men, still loyal, formed an outlaw vigilante squad patrolling his former lands and harassing the new loyalist tenant.

Raleigh is beginning to think they might stand a chance. All these men are tired of the harsh rule they live under now. They’re willing to follow anyone who offers a chance to change. Which is good, because Raleigh is pretty sure he’s not the best at inspiring confidence.

They’re surrounding a campfire now, George, Bill, Bedivere, Raleigh, Mako, and the Mage, discussing battle strategy with the nine barons. Mako is staring into the flame like she’s watching a part of herself floating outside her body. Maybe she is; the fire is hers and charmed to be invisible to anyone not sitting near it. She’s gotten terrifyingly good with her magic in just the past few days.

“We don’t stand a chance of taking the castle by force. It’s too heavily fortified.” Bedivere scratches rough diagrams on the dirt. “But if we can draw him out, make him fight us on our own ground, we have the advantage.”

There’s a scuffling sound from behind them and Raleigh flinches. “What was that?”

“It is only one of our spies.” The Mage leads a small girl with a torn dress and dirty face into the firelight. “She lives in the palace and reports the usurper’s actions. She has an urgent message.”

The girl is staring at Raleigh in undisguised admiration. “My king.” She bows. _Okay, this is definitely too weird._

“No need to bow to me. I’m not king yet,” Raleigh laughs a little to cover the awkwardness.

“There will be a proclamation tomorrow,” the girl whispers. “Vortigern knows of the alliances with the barons, and he is angry. He plans to use your friends, the ones he arrested at the brothel, to make you surrender. He will to execute them all, one each day, if you refuse to turn yourself in and disband the barons.”


	20. The Rescuers-Mako POV

“I can’t let anyone else die because of me.” Raleigh stares into the fire, and Mako can feel his thoughts slipping toward _Yancy, Stacker, Chuck_.

“We can’t give up. Rubio wouldn’t want us to.” Mako traces a finger along the grain of Excalibur’s blade. “He’d say the fate of the kingdom was more important than him.”

“I wasn’t saying give up. I was thinking we show up and break them out.”

“I’m sure he’s expecting us,” Bill mutters. He’s plucking the string on his bow the way Mako has learned means he’s agitated.

“He’s expecting us to come with an army. To challenge. Vortigern thinks big, like what he would do if he was us. He won’t expect us to come in quietly, without a big show, and snatch everyone out from under him. He’s a drama queen,” Raleigh says. _He knows because that’s how he and Yancy used to pilot Gipsy. They were always showing off even when they didn’t need to._ Mako thinks that with no judgment, she’s been a student of the Becket Boys’ techniques for years. They were so unlike most of the other pilots.

“If we ride now we can reach the city by dawn.” The Mage stands.

“I’m ready.” Mako flicks a think tendril of fire between her fingers.

“I’ll come, and that should be enough.” Bill slings his quiver over his back. “We should travel small. Less obvious.”

“Then we’re agreed.” Raleigh sheathes Excalibur. “We’ll come back tomorrow with our people, or we won’t be coming back.”

As predicted, they reach the city by dawn. Mako keeps her hood low over her face; her blue hair would be memorable, even though the color is beginning to fade. Raleigh doesn’t look anything like he did the last time they were in Camelot. His hair is growing out and he’s got the beginnings of a beard forming, but Mako thinks it’s something other than even that. He looks more like a king now, since Excalibur accepted him. There’s something indefinably more royal in the way he carries himself.

They pass the gates without issue, as Mako has, in the past hour, learned how to make them more or less invisible with shimmering waves of heat. The guards complain about the unreasonable situation of the guardhouse next to the kitchen stovepipe, but they don’t see anyone passing.

There are far too many people heading in a single direction, and Mako has the sinking feeling she knows where they are going. Fortunately, it’s the same way they want to go too. _Vortigern must have decided to hold the execution at sunrise. Give Raleigh the least amount of time possible to make a decision before he forces his hand._ Hopefully they’re not too late.

They come out of a clogged street into the town’s central square, where the castle casts long dark shadows on the sea of faces. They dismount and the Mage stands with the horses out of the way, keeping them from panicking in the crowd.

Bill is already gone, scaling the side of a rickety thatched inn to get a better vantage point. Mako climbs halfway onto a wagon of ale barrels whose owner has disappeared in the chaos. She doesn’t worry about being seen, there are at least twenty other people at that wagon and three are drilling their small knives into the barrel staves. That owner’s going to come back to his entire morning’s sale stock drained.

Once she’s over the others’ heads she can see the raised steps at the front of the courtyard. Over a dozen women, most of them in the red-dyed dresses that mark their trade, are standing there, along with a man and a small boy she recognizes as the one from the alley. _Blue._

“They’re here, Raleigh,” she whispers when she slides down. “All of them. I don’t like this.” _Vortigern is smarter than this._

“We have to try.” Raleigh draws Excalibur. She nods and they work their way through the crowd. People part for Raleigh with his drawn blade, and for Mako because she’s sure they can sense there’s something off about her. She can hear the muttering around them but she blocks it out, like forcing down a R.A.B.I.T.

When they get to a place where they can see, she almost loses control. Vortigern has selected his victim from the crowd, and it’s Blue. The boy is shaking, but his head is held high and he’s got his jaw clenched so tight the muscles are jumping. In one hand, Vortigern holds the boy’s chin. In the other’s he carries a long scythe. Mako thinks he looks like the Grim Reaper.

She can see Bill on the roof, waiting, but Vortigern is clever. He’s got the hostages arranged in a semicircle around him, shielding him from an archer’s attack. _He knows Bill’s on our side._

“Here is what your ‘born king’ has done for you!” Vortigern shouts. “Hides like a coward and allows children to be slaughtered! I take no joy in what I am about to do, but this child is a traitor, the son of a thief, rogue, and outlaw. He will only grow to support this coward king. The kingdom cannot stand if it is split between two rulers. After today, you will know which side to choose. Would you rather stand with a man who refuses to protect his own people, or someone who is willing to do what is necessary for the good of you all?”

“Who said I wouldn’t come?” Raleigh throws off his cloak and practically leaps the last two steps onto the platform. Vortigern’s shoulders tremble almost imperceptibly, but he retains his deadly calm.

“Come to die in his place? How noble,” the usurper sneers.

“I don’t plan on dying.” Raleigh raises Excalibur, and now there is a hint of fear in Vortigern’s eyes. It’s just long enough for Mako to lunge forward and snatch Blue back.

Raleigh steps in to meet Vortigern’s scythe swing, blocking him from striking Mako or Blue. The clash of metal sets the whole courtyard in motion. Townspeople are dividing, some pummeling the Blackleg guards with fists or paving stones and stopping them from reaching Raleigh, others trying to mob the stage.

Mako can see Bill on the roof. He’s still waiting for a shot. She gestures to the frightened brothel women to duck. Once one understands, the others follow suit.

Raleigh is holding his own, but Bill could help…She glances his way again and then sees that the roof is swarming with Blacklegs. Bill is nowhere to be seen. She hopes he got away but there’s no way to tell. And now they have no archery support.

She shoves Blue toward his father and goes to help Raleigh. Magic sword or no magic sword, he’s still not the most competent or confident fighter, and left to himself he’ll lose. She tosses a blast of fire at Vortigern, and he turns to face her.

“Mage,” he spits. “I thought we’d wiped your kind of filth from our streets years ago.”

“You thought wrong.” Mako aims another blast of flame as Raleigh strikes out with Excalibur gleaming. Vortigern only barely deflects them both. _We might win. Right here, right now._

She should have known from years in the sims that things are never as easy as they appear. Knowing he’s outmatched, Vortigern turns for the hostages and swings his scythe, straight for Blue.

Mako watches it almost as if the world has slowed. She didn’t think that was a real thing, but it truly is. Rubio turns his back, pushing his son out of the way, and the scythe’s point impales his back, spearing through his chest in a gout of blood. He gasps and falls, and Blue screams.

“No!” Raleigh lunges for Vortigern, swinging Excalibur uncontrolled. Mako wants to warn him, but there’s hands on her arm, and townspeople and Blacklegs alike are screaming, “drown the witch!” She lets the fire loose, and hears the shouts when the people pull back, singed.

She grabs the hands of as many of the women as she can. Someone has to survive this. “Go! Go!” She can see the Mage with the empty brewer’s wagon at the back of the crowd.

The women make it through mostly unharmed, Mako notices, but that is because everyone’s attention is on her. And on Raleigh, matching blows one on one with Vortigern. The Blacklegs are closing in on them as well.

“Raleigh! We need to go!” By some miracle he hears her. So does Vortigern. He swings his scythe for Mako, and Raleigh howls like a wild animal and blocks the strike with Excalibur. The blade glows white-hot, and a powerful shockwave ripples out from it, knocking everyone within fifty feet on their backs. Mako scrambles to her feet, dazed, and grabs Raleigh’s hand. “Let’s go! Now!” They force their way through the crowd to the wagon, where the Mage, the girls, and Blue are waiting. Mako aims a blast of flames at a nearby market stall, knocking it into the road behind them to prevent pursuit. The Mage is a terrifyingly good driver, and for her the horses plow through crowds and even the nearly closed main gate.

It’s not until they’re miles out of town that the Mage gives the exhausted horses a rest. Mako is finally composed enough to take stock. Out of the fifteen girls, twelve are here. She’s not sure if the rest made it through the crowd. One of them is holding Blue, who looks stunned, his hands, shirt, and face covered in his father’s blood.

Bill is who-knows-where. Rubio is dead. And Raleigh looks a million miles away. _Like he did whenever he talked about Yancy._ Mako knows they succeeded back there. They saved most of their people. But she wonders what the cost is going to be. _Did Raleigh lose himself in the process?_


	21. The Price of Being Heroes-Mako POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the sporadic update, life got in the way big time...

They’re greeted enthusiastically when they return to the camp. There are cheers and shouts and whistles, and it feels like after they took down Leatherback and Otachi. Everyone wants to call them heroes. But they both know what the cost of being heroes is. That day, they lost the Weis and the Kaidanovskys. Today, its’s Rubio and three of the girls.

Raleigh is flinching away from the noise, and Mako thinks there are trails of tears running down his cheeks. She can feel the deep grief ripping into him. Raleigh is a soldier, he knows that war means death and loss. But he’s not just grieving today. He’s also thinking about Chuck and _Sensei._ They fell here and neither of them had the chance to properly mourn the two last fallen soldiers of the Kaiju War. Raleigh feels like those deaths are on his head too.

“Shhh.” Mako holds Blue close to her, muffling the boy’s sobs. He’s been crying since they reached the forest, where, from what she knows from the others, Rubio used to take his son to hunt. Part of the reason Rubio was part of the outlaw gang was that he had a price on his head for killing the king’s game animals.

Thinking of Vortigern makes Mako sick. The bastard toyed with Raleigh’s mind, threatened his friends, which are the closest thing to family he has, and killed one of the people he felt responsible for in front of him. She wants to go back and burn that man and his black, infected castle to the ground. Wants to watch him burn, let him feel some measure of the pain he’s inflected on so many, including the one person Mako never wants to see hurt again. Raleigh’s endured too much already. He didn’t deserve this.

She tries to stay close to him, absorb some of the crushing grief through the Drift bond, but Raleigh doesn’t want to talk. She didn’t really expect him to; he talks about his feelings when he feels like it and can’t be pushed.

He stays withdrawn the whole evening, barely eating even when the barons roast a deer they caught in the forest earlier. When they slice into the animal and the reddish juices from the meat drip down to crackle in the fire, Raleigh turns almost white and jumps up. Mako thinks she can hear him throwing up in the bushes not too far away, but she says nothing when he returns. She can barely eat anything herself. She’s glad they weren’t here when the men strung the animal up and butchered it. The blood would have been too much.

She wants to stay with him after the meal, or what they had of it, is over, because he’s got that look in his eyes, like he did back before they found out they were compatible, back when Chuck said he was a failure and that he was going to ruin the mission. He’s hurting and he feels worthless.

But Blue is still crying and no one can do anything with him. And if anyone knows what it’s like to grieve a father, Mako does. She’s had twice the experience of most people. And if she thinks about that for too long, she’ll be in the same hole as Raleigh. So she goes to talk to Blue because she remembers herself at that age, screaming in a city street full of ash. And that’s when _Sensei_ came. She thinks if he hadn’t come then she would have sat down and died right there. Blue needs someone like that now, and she smiles a little when she thinks that maybe not all of _Sensei_ died in that explosion, because some part of him is here now, in her.

“I’m here.” She sits down, and it feels like a useless thing to say, but she can’t say it will get better and she can’t say she understands, because the girl in the ash wouldn’t have listened to people who said that. “We’re all here for you.” She remembers _Sensei_ speaking her language brokenly, assuring her the threat was gone. “You’re safe here. No one will find us.” She’s not altogether sure it’s true, but then again, _Sensei_ knew there would be more Kaiju later. It was just that the immediate danger was gone, and then, it had been enough.

“He’s gone. He was supposed to always be there and he isn’t.” Blue is mangling the hem of his tunic, tears staining his cheeks. “I want him back.”

“I know.” Mako reaches for his fidgeting hands. “I want my father back too. And my _Sensei._ ”

“You lost them?”

“Yes. And I know you’re going to need some time now. It takes a long time and it’s never really going to be okay again, but you’ll learn how to keep living. I promise.”

“It’s not the same without him.”

“I know. But they’re gone. And they wouldn’t want me to give up because they were gone. I know you need to cry now. But there’s still a war to win, and we need you just like we need any of the other people here.” She knows she sounds harsh. She never had good people skills. Too blunt. She learned early that life hit hard and gave no mercy, so she has always done the same. She’s afraid for a minute that she’s been too cold, but Blue seems to focus on what she’s saying and come a little out of his huddle.”

“I’m not a good soldier. I got us caught.” Blue sniffs. “I sneezed and they found where we were hiding.”

“It’s not your fault. Vortigern is cruel and he only wants to kill. We have to stop him. He’ll pay for what he did, but not if we don’t all work together. We need everyone we can get and that means you too.” She can see herself in his eyes, the fire of determination, seeking payment for something that can never be paid back in full. _This, this is the real cost of war. It turns its orphans, its children, into killers._ Mako knows she is the same, and she wonders, for a moment, what it will be like on Earth now, after there is nothing more to fight. Would she have any life at all now that she has fulfilled the promise she made at her family’s graves?

She sits with Blue until he falls asleep, and only then does she look over at the fallen log where Raleigh was sitting.

Raleigh is gone.

She’s about to jump up and start searching when she feels a hand on her shoulder. “I will go find him.” The Mage watches Mako coldly. “You are in no position to do what needs to be done. You cannot be clearheaded with him.” _It sounds like something_ Sensei _would say._ Mako watches the woman walk into the trees and hopes Raleigh hasn’t done something truly awful. _But if he had, I would have felt it. Right?_


	22. Everything you touch only dies-Raleigh POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry it's taking me so long to post. I've had three weddings (none of them mine lol) eight open houses (one of those was my brother's) and three tight work deadlines in the last two weeks. Hopefully now the worst is over...But I feel like at this point, a Kaiju stomping up to my office building would not be a surprise the way my life is going.

He waits until Mako’s distracted by Blue to leave. Otherwise she’s going to insist on coming with him, or stopping him. She still seems to believe he’s a hero. He wishes she’d go back to the way she was before they found out they were compatible. _She was right. I was never the right man for the job. Not there, not here._ Everyone always expects a hero and Raleigh always, always, disappoints them.

But still, if Mako knew what he was going off to do, she’d argue him out of it. She’d tell him this is what he’s supposed to do. He guesses maybe he’s lucky to have someone who believes in him. But in the end, he’s going to disappoint her too. Sooner or later he’s going to do something she can’t forgive, or worse yet get her killed. He doesn’t think he can live with himself if that happens. He tried to save her back in Gispy, tried to get her out before they got trapped. And he failed with that too.

He’s not really sure where he’s going. It’s aimless wandering until he hears the soft crashing of waves on rock in the distance. _Sounds like home._ He’s used to listening to water crashing against something it can’t get past, sounding angry and determined. _How it sounded on the Wall._ He knows what this looks like, but he’s had good reason to throw himself off someplace into the ocean for the last five years, and he hasn’t, because _it doesn’t matter how I feel, Yance didn’t give up everything for me just so I can throw it all away. He deserves better than that._ But there is something he won’t have a problem hurling into the watery depths.

Excalibur is still sheathed by his side. He hasn’t even looked to see if there’s blood on her, but he’s sure there is. He knows it would be from the soldiers they fought, but it feels more like it would be Rubio’s. The man trusted Raleigh, believed he was their best chance, and he died for it. And Raleigh is a failure and a coward who can’t bear to get more people killed. _I’m giving up._ And yes, Rubio might be disappointed in him, but if Raleigh had done this a lot sooner, the man would at least be alive to be disappointed.

He steps out of the treeline onto a large rock overlooking the water. Excalibur glitters in the moonlight when he draws her out, streaks of black lining her blade that he knows are blood. He stares at the faintly glowing runes bright against the evening sky.

“Why?” He doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve this. “What the hell am I supposed to do? Everyone thinks I’m a hero and all I ever do is get them killed!” He hates this. He hates being the one everyone counts on, the one people are willing to die for. First Yance, then Chuck and Pentecost, and now Rubio. He flings the sword as far and as hard as he can into the water.

He’s on his way back to the camp when he comes to the realization that he doesn’t know how he got here. He’s hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar forest, and now he doesn’t even have a weapon. He hopes there aren’t any wild animals here bigger than he is. _With my luck I’ll come face to face with a Kaiju and half the Blackleg army._

There’s a small, half-overgrown trail ahead, and even though he doesn’t remember walking on that, and there are no footprints there to indicate he did, he decides to take it anyway. _It has to lead somewhere._ And right now, he just wants to get out of this woods before he scares himself anymore.

The path winds down into a hollow, mossy, increasingly damp dirt squishing under Raleigh’s boots. Maybe this is the track to a spring that a crofter’s family uses. Maybe he’s going the wrong way. He’s about to turn around when it feels like the muddy ground opens underneath him and swallows him.

He’s too shocked to do much more than struggle wordlessly when a strange woman in a white gown, her face hidden by masses of waving pale hair, grabs his hands and begins dragging him down. He can’t see the bottom of whatever this is, and instead of thick, sticky mud, they’re sinking in clear indigo water. It’s like doing an underwater descent in a Jaeger, only without the protective armor. The water is icy, and Raleigh can feel himself shivering. Then he’s not even aware of the water anymore, and like the disjointed flashes of a Drift, he’s standing on scorched copper earth, a red sun burning overhead. It’s like the world Gipsy fell into, but he knows this is different because there is only one sun. All around him, Kaiju are soaring through the air, and strange-looking creatures with pinkish-white exoskeletons, like oversize praying mantis bugs, are chittering and scuttling.

And then he sees it, the burnt out hulk of stone that used to be the castle. And there are words in his head he doesn’t remember thinking. _This is what will happen if Vortigern is left to rule. He does not understand what he is bringing into this world. He will not be able to control the dragons forever. Their masters will come, and Vortigern himself will be defeated by them. And then they will have this world for their own._

Raleigh feels sick. Just a glimpse of that nightmare world through the Breach was terrifying. If that is unleashed here, all these people, all the ones he’s trying to protect by running away, they’ll all die. They don’t stand a chance against the Kaiju. He feels something cold and hard in his hand, and then the dream releases him.

Raleigh coughs up a mouthful of mud, gasping for breath and clutching the sword hilt. He’s back in the forest, near the path he was on, and he’s holding Excalibur again. _How the hell did she get here?_ But he’s suddenly the most grateful he’s ever been in his life. He doesn’t know how, but somehow that sword is going to be the key to stopping Vortigern before the Kaiju and their creators take over this world.

Mako’s never going to let him hear the end of this. The third time in a week he’s ended up covered in muck. He gets up slowly, hearing the sound of hoofbeats in the distance. He prepares to hide, not quite steady enough on his feet to fight, and then recognizes the riders. Bill and Bedivere. He sighs quietly.

“Guess I got a bit lost.”

“A bit? What in the name of Merlin’s fire are you doing on the other side of the Darkwood?” Bill sounds both amused and annoyed. “You’ve been gone for hours. And what happened to you, man? You look like you tried to catch the May feast pig in the rain!”

“Long story.” Raleigh accepts Bedivere’s hand to climb on his horse behind him. “Really long story.”


End file.
